Astronomy Department Colloquia

Colloquia Schedule Spring 2012

Colloquia are on Tuesdays (unless otherwise indicated) at 3:30 pm in RLM 15.216B

Jan. 17	"Searching for Clues to the Black Hole-Galaxy Relationship Through Nearby AGN Surveys" abstract Lisa M. Winter University of Colorado at Boulder host: Shardha Jogee
Jan. 24	Tinsley Visiting Scholar (Stars Group) "Heavy Element Nucleosynthesis in the Brightest Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars" abstract Amanda Karakas Mt. Stromlo Observatory, Canberra, Australia host: Harriet Dinerstein
Jan. 31	"Probing the Cosmic History of Star Formation in Galaxies with the Herschel Space Observatory and CCAT" abstract Jason Glenn University of Colorado at Boulder host: Shardha Jogee
Feb. 7	"New Observational Insights into Cosmic Reionization" abstract George Becker University of Cambridge, Kavli Institute for Cosmology, UK host: Milos Milosavljevic
Thurs Feb. 9	"Early Star Forming Galaxies and Reionization" abstract Daniel Stark Steward Observatory, Arizona hosts: Sally Dodson-Robinson & Shardha Jogee
Feb. 14	"Fueling Cosmic Star Formation: The Molecular Gas Mass Density of the Universe" abstract Dominik Riechers California Institute of Technology hosts: Shardha Jogee & Milos Milosavljevic
Feb. 21	"Direct Imaging of Exoplanets: Prospects for Comparative Exoplanetology" abstract Beth Biller Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany host: Anita Cochran
Thurs Feb. 23	"Understanding Galaxy Evolution in the Early Universe" abstract Steven Finkelstein University of Texas at Austin host: Shardha Jogee
Feb. 28	"Giant Planets Caught at Formation" abstract Adam L. Kraus University of Hawaii, Institute for Astronomy host: Chris Sneden
Thurs Mar. 1	"The Dark Art of Detecting and Characterizing Planets by Direct Imaging" abstract Thayne Currie NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center host: Chris Sneden
Mar. 6	"Molecular spectroscopy of planet-forming regions: A quest to understand the diversity of planets and planetary systems" abstract Colette Salyk National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) host: Sally Dodson-Robinson
Mar. 13	Spring Break: 12 - 16 March. No Colloquium scheduled.
Mar. 20	No talk scheduled.
Mar 27	"Dark Matter Properties from the Faintest Galaxies" abstract Louis Strigari Stanford University / Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology host: Karl Gebhardt
Apr. 3 RLM 15.216B 3:30 PM	Antoinette de Vaucouleurs Medalist and Lecturer "The Carnegie Supernova and Hubble Constant Projects" abstract Wendy Freedman Director, Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science host: Dan Jaffe
Apr. 4 ETC 2.136 4:30 PM	Antoinette de Vaucouleurs Medalist and Lecturer (visiting: 4/2-4/8) Public Talk: "A Journey of Discovery: Our Expanding Universe" abstract Wendy Freedman Director, Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science host: Dan Jaffe
Apr. 10	"The ABCs of Low-Mass Stars" abstract Andrew West Boston University host: TBD
Apr. 17	"The History of Massive Galaxy Formation as a Cosmological Tool" abstract Christopher J. Conselice University of Nottingham, UK host: Shardha Jogee
Apr. 24	"Black Holes and Neutron Stars in the Local Universe" abstract Krzysztof Belczynski University of Warsaw and University of Texas, Brownsville host: Milos Milosavljevic
Wed Apr. 25	Tinsley Visiting Professor (visiting: 4/23-5/17) "The First Billion Years of our Universe" abstract Andrea Ferrara Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy host: Volker Bromm
May 1	Texas Cosmology Center Distinguished Visitor "Constraining Cosmology through the Growth of Structure: New Results from the South Pole Telescope" abstract John Carlstrom University of Chicago host: Eiichiro Komatsu
Mon June 18 10 AM	PhD Defense Presentation "Dark Matter Halos and Stellar Kinematics of Elliptical Galaxies" The hierarchical assembly of mass, wherein smaller dark matter halos merge into larger ones and eventually form the massive dark matter halos we see today, is a central tenet of galaxy formation theory. Within these dark matter halos, baryons are swept along for the ride and provide the raw ingredients for galaxies. The cold dark matter paradigm, from which hierarchical growth naturally comes, is supported by well-motivated physical arguments and the remarkable agreement between N-body simulations of the growth of structure and observations of the distribution of galaxies in the local Universe. However, on the scales of individual galaxies, the cold dark matter model struggles to explain a number of observations involving the distribution of dark matter within individual galaxies, and the timescale of both the formation of stars, and the assembly of those stars into galaxies. In this dissertation talk I will address some of the central issues in galaxy formation. My research focuses on massive elliptical galaxies and employs the Mitchell Spectrograph at McDonald Observatory to study the motion and chemical abundances of the stars in a galaxy over a large radial extent. The results of axisymmetric dynamical modeling of M49 and M87, the first and second rank galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, are compared. Despite their very similar mass, their dark matter halo profiles and the orbital motions of their stars differ substantially, indicative of a very different formation history. Further observations of the chemical abundances of a wider sample of elliptical galaxies shows that the cores of massive elliptical galaxies have been in place for many billions of years, in agreement with other work. However, the stars comprising their outer halos (R > 2 Re) come from less massive systems. Yet unlike the stars of present day, low-mass ellipticals, whose star formation is known to be episodic and extended, these accreted systems had their star formation shut off at high redshift. I will talk about how these new observations are influencing our emerging picture of massive galaxy formation. close Jeremy Murphy University of Texas at Austin
Tue July 24 1 PM	PhD Defense Presentation "An Experiment in Integrated, Guided-Inquiry Science Classes and Implications for Teaching Astronomy" abstract Randi Ludwig University of Texas at Austin
Tue Aug 21 2 PM	PhD Defense Presentation "Tests of the Episodic Mass Accretion Model for Low-Mass Star Formation" abstract Hyo Jeong Kim University of Texas at Austin