Participants:
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Kristen Menou
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Kristen Menou is a a Research Scientist at the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (IAP, France). He carried out his PhD research
at the University of Paris and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, receiving his degree in 1999. He has been a
Chandra Fellow at Princeton and a Celerity Foundation Fellow at the University of Virginia. His research interests include the
physics of accretion onto compact objects, the formation and evolution of planetary systems, and issues related to the atmospheric
circulation of recently discovered extrasolar giant planets.
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Mary Ann Rankin
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Mary Ann Rankin has served as Dean of the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin since September of 1994.
Prior to her term as dean, she served as Chairman of the Division of Biological Sciences at UT from September 1989 to August of 1994
and as Professor of Zoology from 1996 to present. She came to the University of Texas at Austin in January of 1975, when she joined
the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Zoology. Mary Ann received her Bachelor of Science in Biology and Chemistry from Louisiana
State University in New Orleans, served as a National Science Foundation pre-doctoral fellow at the Imperial College Field Station in
Ascot, England, was awarded a Ph.D. in physiology and behavior from the University of Iowa. She then served as a National Institutes
of Health postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.
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Seth Redfield
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Seth Redfield arrived in August 2003 as a Harlan J. Smith Postdoctoral Fellow. He received his PhD in May from the University of
Colorado after completing a thesis under the direction of Jeff Linsky. He is currently investigating the three-dimensional morphology
and physical structure of the local interstellar medium and has developed morphological models of the cloud that directly surrounds
our solar system. His interests include the effects of the interstellar environment on terrestrial phenomena, including historical
climate patterns. He also studies late-type stars using ultraviolet, far-ultraviolet and optical spectroscopy.
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Ted von Hippel
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Ted von Hippel is a Research Scientist at UT, Austin, where he specializes
in the cooling ages of white dwarf stars, stellar evolution, and astrobiology. He also studies a range of Galactic structure and stellar population questions. Ted received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, advised by Greg Bothun. He then completed two postdoctoral fellowships, one at Cambridge University in England, and the other working for the University of Wisconsin, Madison, but resident in Tucson, Arizona and supporting the WIYN 3.5m telescope on Kitt Peak. Ted then worked for Gemini Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii, where he helped commission the Gemini
North 8m telescope. Ted has been at UT since August, 2001.
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Michael Liu
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Michael Liu is an Assistant Astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii. He received his PhD at UC
Berkeley in 2000. Since then, he has been a Beatrice Watson Parrent Fellow and (from 2003) a Hubble Fellow at Hawaii. His
current research focuses on understanding the physical nature and origin of substellar objects. He is involved in searches
for young exoplanets using ground-based telescopes with adaptive optics, in spectroscopic investigations of young brown
dwarfs, and in studies of the circumstellar disks of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs.
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Fabian Walter
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Fabian Walter is a Jansky Fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. He received his PhD in 1999 from the
University of Bonn, Germany and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech from 1999-2002. He is interested in radio
observations of the highest redshift quasars at the end of cosmic reionization which trace the molecular gas and
dust content in these early systems. Other studies include multi-wavelength observations of nearby dwarf galaxies
(from the radio to X-rays) to understand the evolution of these little evolved systems. He is also a member of the SIRTF
egacy program SINGS which will investigate the physical properties of the ISM in nearby galaxies of all Hubble types.
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Don Winget
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Don Winget became Chairman of the University of Texas Department of Astronomy in October, 2003. He received his Bachelor's
Degree in Physics from University of Illinois, Ubana-Champaign in 1976. He earned his Masters degree in 1978, and was awarded
a Ph.D. in Physics and Astronomy in 1982 from Rochester. Dr. Winget has been the recipient of several awards for his dedication to
teaching and for his research accomplishments including the ASP Roger J. Trumpler Award in 1983, the Presidential Young Investigator
Award from 1986-1991, the AAS Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy in 1987, and the Dad's Association Teaching Fellowship
Award for the 1991-1992 academic year. WingetÕs current research interests are cosmochronology and a new extra-solar planet
detection method.
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