Faculty/Scientists

Publications

Volker Bromm

Associate Professor

Research Interests

Formation of the first stars and quasars; high-redshift supernovae and metal enrichment; supermassive black hole formation; gamma-ray bursts; reionization of the intergalactic medium; present-day star formation; computational astrophysics.

Group Areas

First Stars & Galaxies, ISM and Star Formation, Structure Formation, Theoretical & Computational Astrophysics

Sally Dodson-Robinson

Assistant Professor

Research Interests

Planet formation, planet host composition, protostellar disk chemistry, Galactic chemical evolution, debris disks and brown dwarfs.

Group Areas

Planet Formation, Star Formation & Protoplanetary Disks, Extrasolar Planetary Systems

Rob Duncan

Senior Research Scientist

Research Interests

Magnetars (ultra-magnetized neutron stars) and their possible observable consequences for soft gamma repeaters, anomalous X-ray pulsars, gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, cosmic rays, and old galactic neutron stars.

Group Areas

Neutron Stars & Magnetars

Pawan Kumar

Professor

Research Interests

Gamma-ray bursts; helioseismology; binary stars; tidal interaction; accretion disks; cosmology.

Group Areas

Gamma-ray Bursts, Asteroseismology

Milos Milosavljevic

Associate Professor

Research Interests

Massive black holes; the Galactic center; galaxy formation; galaxy clusters; plasma astrophysics.

Group Areas

Clusters of Galaxies, Gamma-ray Bursts, Theoretical & Computational Astrophysics, Black Holes & AGN

Mike Montgomery

Research Scientist

Research Interests

Pulsation and seismology of white dwarf stars, nonlinear light curve modeling, numerical and theoretical studies of convection, evolution of white dwarf stars, constitutive physics of white dwarfs (crystallization, diffusion), Science Director of Whole Earth Telescope.

Group Areas

White Dwarfs, Whole Earth Telescope, Stellar Pulsation, Asteroseismology

John Scalo

Professor

Research Interests

Star formation; interstellar medium; turbulence; galaxy evolution; complex systems; astrobiology.

Group Areas

Astrobiology, Milky Way Evolution, ISM and Star Formation, Planet Formation, Atmospheres & Life, Star Formation & Protoplanetary Disks

Paul Shapiro

Professor

Research Interests

Theoretical astrophysics: cosmology, galaxy formation, the interstellar medium, the intergalactic medium, interstellar dust grains, astrophysical hydrodynamics.

Group Areas

Structure Formation, Milky Way Evolution, ISM and Star Formation, Early Universe, First Stars & Galaxies, Cosmic Reionization, Clusters of Galaxies

Gregory Shields

Professor

Research Interests

Active galactic nuclei; supermassive black holes; chemical evolution of galaxies.

Group Areas

Active Galactic Nuclei, Black Holes & AGN

Steven Weinberg

Professor

Research Interests

Theoretical astrophysics and cosmology.

Group Areas

Fundamental Physics

J. Craig Wheeler

Professor

Research Interests

Stellar evolution; supernovae; accretion discs; gamma-ray bursts, astrobiology.

Group Areas

Supernovae, Astrobiology, Milky Way Evolution

Don Winget

Professor

Research Interests

Theory and observation: cosmochronology; evolution of the Milky Way; late stages of stellar evolution; stellar pulsations; white dwarf stars as dark matter detectors; the Whole Earth Telescope.

Group Areas

White Dwarfs, Asteroseismology, Whole Earth Telescope, Stellar Pulsation

Postdocs

Publications

Agusto Carballido

Postdoctoral Fellow

Anson D'Aloisio

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests

Theoretical cosmology, including structure formation, gravitational lensing, and cosmic reionization.

Tanja Rindler-Daller

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests

Galactic dynamics and structure formation, the nature of dark matter, quantum and classical many-body and statistical physics, cosmology.

Group Areas

Structure Formation

Jeff Silverman

Postdoctoral Fellow

Research Interests

Supernovae

Group Areas

Supernovae

Graduate Students

Publications

Meghann Agarwal

Graduate Student - Physics

Group Areas

Theoretical & Computational Astrophysics

Emmanouil Chatzopoulos

Graduate Student

Group Areas

Supernovae

Patrick Crumley

Graduate Student

Group Areas

Gamma-ray Bursts

Ross Falcon

Graduate Student

Group Areas

White Dwarfs

Jonathan Ganc

Graduate Student

Research Interests

Primordial non-Gaussianity, inflation, high-energy theory.

Group Areas

Early Universe

James Hermes

Graduate Student

Group Areas

White Dwarfs

Roberto Hernandez

Graduate Student - Physics

Jacob Hummel

Graduate Student

Group Areas

First Stars & Galaxies

Inh Jee

Graduate Student

Myoungwon Jeon

Graduate Student

Group Areas

First Stars & Galaxies

Daniel Kagan

Graduate Student

Group Areas

Supernovae, Theoretical & Computational Astrophysics

Bohua Li

Graduate Student

Research Interests

Theoretical cosmology: structure formation, reionization, early universe.

Chris Lindner

Graduate Student

Group Areas

Theoretical & Computational Astrophysics, Gamma-ray Bursts, Supernovae

Joel Meyers

Graduate Student

Research Interests

Early universe cosmology, inflation, and non-Gaussianities.

Group Areas

Fundamental Physics

Brian Mulligan

Graduate Student

Hyunbae Park

Graduate Student

Research Interests

Kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect on the cosmic microwave background.

Jeremy Ritter

Graduate Student

Research Interests

Computational Cosmology

Group Areas

First Stars & Galaxies, Theoretical & Computational Astrophysics

Chalence Safranek-Shrader

Graduate Student

Research Interests

Star Formation in the First Galaxies; Chemical and Radiative Feedback from the First Stars and Galaxies; Near-field Cosmology

Group Areas

First Stars & Galaxies, Theoretical & Computational Astrophysics, ISM and Star Formation

Rodolfo Santana

Graduate Student

Group Areas

Gamma-ray Bursts

Alan Sluder

Graduate Student

Group Areas

Astrobiology, Atmospheres & Life

Aaron Smith

Graduate Student

Tsz Ho (Benny) Tsang

Graduate Student

Undergraduate Students

Publications