Research Interests

My research interests span a wide variety of topics, but focus primarily on two seemingly disparate areas: the end stages of stellar evolution, and the structure of galaxies. The questions that currently occupy some of my time (or at least roll around in my head) include:

What is the mass dividing stars that go supernova from those that form white dwarfs?
Can we identify white dwarf-white dwarf binary systems that are likely to coalesce and form a Type Ia supernova?
What is the relationship between a star's mass and that of its white dwarf remnant?
Can strong gravitational lenses be useful cosmological probes?
Can gravitational lenses tell us about the evolutionary history of the lens galaxy?
Can we (relatively) unambiguously detect dark matter in giant elliptical galaxies?
Can we learn about the assembly history of early-type galaxies from studying the outer regions of nearby giant ellipticals?

I am an observational astronomer, primarily at optical wavelengths (both ground- and space-based). I have dabbled in X-ray astronomy, and I am devising future projects that will use ultraviolet and infrared data.

Active collaborators include: Michael Bolte (Lick Observatory), Steven DeGennaro (Univ. of Texas), Paul Dobbie (AAO), Patrick Dufour (Univ. of Arizona), Elizabeth Jeffery (Univ. of Texas), James Liebert (Univ. of Arizona), Ivelina Momcheva (Univ. of Arizona), Michael Montgomery (Univ. of Texas), Kate Rubin (UC Santa Cruz), Ted von Hippel (Siena College), Don Winget (Univ. of Texas), and Ann Zabludoff (Univ. of Arizona).