RESEARCH STATEMENT FOR SHARDHA JOGEE (APR 14, 2008) Most of my research activities are described in my vitae and bibliography, and the report from the evaluations committee (EC). The purpose of this statement is only to clarify certain points. RESEARCH GRANTS Since 2003, my grant award is $1,124,385, with $964,748 as Principal Investigator (PI) on peer-reviewed science grants. These include a NASA LTSA grant for $558K in 2003, and an NSF grant for over $300K in 2006. RESEARCH WITHIN LARGE COLLABORATIONS My current research addresses the formation and evolution of galaxies as a function of redshift and in diverse environments, from fields to clusters. Since 2003, I was invited to join several large international science collaborations, which have conducted some of the largest multiwavelength surveys of galaxies to date: - GEMS (2004; www.mpia.de/GEMS/gems.htm; 135 orbits) - GOODS (2004; I had only a peripheral involvement due to conflict w/ GEMS) - STAGES Abell 901/902 survey (2005; GO-10395; 80 orbits) - Coma ACS Treasury Survey (2006 ;G0-10861; 164 orbits) - Deep NICMOS imaging of GOODS (2007; GO-11082; 180 orbits) Questions are sometimes raised about the 'independence' of research conducted within large collaborations, and long author lists. So, I would like to explain how my research fits in within these teams. 1) I was invited on these collaborations to *lead* the science on barred disks (for GEMS, STAGES, Coma, NICMOS imaging of GOODS) and *co-lead* the science on merger and interaction history of galaxies for GEMS, and STAGES. So far, my research group and I have worked on these science questions using the GEMS and STAGES surveys, which are completed. Next year, we will move to the Coma and NICMOS imaging of GOODS surveys, which are currently in progress. 2) In the two areas that I am asked to lead, I set the science goals and the key science questions to be addressed; I define the methodology to be used, and I either develop most of the machinery myself, or work closely with my students or postdoc to develop it. EXAMPLE 1 : For the bar science in GEMS, I developed an iterative adaptive ellipse-fitting network and profile characterization tool, which allowed me to fit and analyze samples over 10 times larger than previously studied (1590 galaxies vs ~200 before). This led to the GEMS bar paper (Jogee et al 2004), which remained the largest study of bars at intermediate redshifts until 2008, and was one of the first papers to put bars in a cosmological context. As the next step, I initiated 2 projects to derive the local z~0 benchmark point for the GEMS study. My postdoc (Barazza) and first year student (Marinova) used my machinery to analyze large local samples of spirals leading to two refereed papers: Marinova & Jogee (2007), and Barazza, Jogee, and Marinova (2008). The latter paper analyzed over 3600 galaxies in SDSS, and was the largest SDSS-based study of local bars as of 2008. The machinery is also the basis for the upcoming paper by Marinova, Jogee, et al (2008) in the STAGES collaboration. I also note that the ESO Distant Clusters Survey (EDISCS) collaboration, which my ex-postdoc joined, has also requested to use our tools and approach, and I will co-author their main bar papers if we reach an agreement. EXAMPLE 2: To address the merger history over the last 7 Gyr in GEMS, I developed a hybrid approach combining quantitative methods with a visual classification system of decoupled parameters going beyond the traditional Hubble sequence. This is now leading to a paper on the 'History of Galaxy Interactions and their Impact on Star Formation over the Last 7 Gyr from GEMS' (Jogee et al. 2008a (arXiv:0802.3901) and 2008b). This approach is now the basis for the work on mergers in the STAGES A901/902 supercluster, leading to the Heiderman, Jogee et al. 2008 STAGES papers. 3) The core analysis for these 2 science areas (bars, mergers) is done by me or my students at UT, and we write up the paper. Only at that stage, are the other de facto members of the collaboration added to the author list, and asked to give feedback through our internal refereeing. Thus, despite the long author list, over 95% of the core work in the papers is done by me and my group. 4) I am ultimately responsible for the quality of the science that the UT group delivers in these high profile international collaborations. Since my 3 graduate students and 2 undergraduate students are still learning the skills of the trade, this requires me to spend a large amount of time independently verifying the results by repeating the analyses. 5) Due to (2),(3),(4) my contribution is substantial in PAPERS WITH A LONG AUTHOR LIST, WHERE MY STUDENT OR POSTDOC ARE FIRST AUTHORS, AND I AM SECOND AUTHOR. As outlined in my bibliography, my second and first author papers include - 14 conference proceedings in the last year (see astroph) - 8 ApJ papers in the last year with 3 published, and 4 in prep., with expected submission by May 2008. Drafts are online at http://www.as.utexas.edu/~sj/pt/ TEACHING AND ADVISING I have taught non-science majors, science majors, and graduate courses. My course ratings are not great in absolute terms, but I would note the following a) My reviews for the graduate course on Gravitational Dynamics (which is a hard one to teach) are the best ones to date over the history of the department. b) As part of a Dean's fellowship, I am working on a course entitled "Practical Introduction to Research" whose goal is to equip our UG students with the basic skills for research, such as basics of IDL programming (statistical analyses, plots, array operations) introduction to IRAF, AIPS, Latex; literature review; and science writing. c) I received a FAST Tex grant for Instructional Innovation Techniques from UT, for the development of the Galaxies and Cosmos Explorer Tool (GCET), an online tool (http://www.as.utexas.edu/gcet/) to allow UG students to actively engage in exploring the evolution of galaxies over a large fraction of the age of the Universe. d) Of the 5 undergraduates I advised, Sarah Miller was awarded a Rhodes scholarship in 2008, and Kyle Penner had 5 offers from graduate schools including Hawaii and Arizona. OUTREACH I am the PI two NASA Education and Public Outreach (EPO)grant awards in 2006 and 2007. I worked closely with the McDonald EPO and STARDATE office, in order to develop 5 radio programs on the ACS Treasury Survey of the Coma Cluster, as well as a Universo Teacher's Guide, and class activities. The radio program will be broadcast in the USA, Mexico, and Germany in May 2008. Furthermore, through a synergistic effort funded by NASA, NSF, and UT I am working with a diverse team in order to develop the Galaxies and Cosmos Explorer Tool (GCET; www.as.utexas.edu/gcet). This is an online tool that allows the public and students to actively engage in exploring the evolution of galaxies over a large fraction of the age of the Universe. SERVICE My service includes being the undergraduate Advisor in astronomy for 72 students; serving as member of the Dean's Scholars (DS) steering; refereeing papers; serving on national committees, such as the HST TAC, and ALMA North American Science Advisory Committee. As UG advisor, I initiated several efforts to attract excellent students into our program by working out 4 and 5 years plans for double majors in Physics and Astronomy; setting up the Astronomy Freshman Excellence award; facilitating research; interviewing top applicants at the CNS level; and producing a first-time brochure of our UG program that is now widely used in top high schools, outreach events, Explore UT, etc. TIME AT SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSITUTE (2002 TO 2004) At the time I was hired at UT, the Dean and Astronomy Department Chair Don Winget agreed to count my two years in a tenure track position at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) toward tenure at UT. As many of you may not be familiar with my activities at STScI, I provide a brief summary. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Caltech, I joined STScI in 2002 in a tenure-track staff position, which is equivalent to a tenure-track assistant professor position. The time allocation was 50% research and 50% functional work. For the functional work, I joined the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) team. ACS was the latest instrument on HST and 70% of HST observations were being performed with ACS. As the ACS Contact Scientist Lead and User Support Lead, I supervised the work of 12 ACS instrument scientists, including both tenure-track and tenured astronomers. My responsibilities included advising ACS users on the best strategy to achieve their science goals at the phase II stage, and authorizing observations on the ACS Solar Blind Channel (SBC) after performing the necessary calculations to ensure that safety limits are not exceeded. Finally, during the time of crisis when the sevicing mission for HST was cancelled indefinitely, I performed outreach efforts at STScI with Senator Barbara Mikulski (MD). In terms of research, I made a huge transition at STScI. At Caltech, my research has primarily focused on studying the dynamics, molecular gas properties and star formation models in a handful of barred local spirals, through very time-consuming radio interferometric observations (1 galaxy a year), optical/IR imaging, and modelling. At STScI, with the era of large surveys enabled by ACS and advocated by NASA, I transitioned to studying samples of tens of thousands of disk galaxies imaged with ACS, using entirely different techniques. After an initial steep transition curve, I developed an iterative adaptive ellipse-fitting network and profile characterization tool that allowed me to analyze samples of barred galaxies, which were 20 times larger than earlier samples (e.g., 1590 galaxies vs ~200 before). I was invited to join the GEMS and GOODS teams, which were conducting the largest and deepest galaxy surveys, respectively, in 2004. However, due to the competition between the two teams and the associated conflict of interest, I only had a peripheral involvement with GOODS, deciding instead to focus on science within the smaller GEMS team. This led to the GEMS bar paper (Jogee et al 2004), which was the largest study of bars at intermediate redshifts till 2008, and attempted to put bars in a cosmological context. I was also a member of the home planning team for the Hubble ACS Ultra Deep Field (HUDF:PI Steve Beckwith), the deepest Hubble Space Telescope optical imaging survey to date. I led and co-led two scientific planning documents (online at www.stsci.edu/hst/udf): - "Planning of the ACS Ultra Deep Field'' by Jogee, S., Ferguson, H., Stiavelli, M., Panagia, N., and Riess, A. ; - "Radio and Sub-mm Considerations for the ACS Ultra Deep Field", by Koekomoer, A., Jogee, S., Beckwith, S. V. W., and Stiavelli, M.. As part of the Scientific Organizing Committee, I co-organized the STScI May 2003 symposium. I started a research group, hiring a postdoc in 2003 and a masters level student. I also mentored students as part of STScI's summer research program. While I did not teach at STScI, I was an invited lecturer for the 2003 Lecture Series on AGN Research organized by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), along with Brad Peterson, Moshe Elitzur, Roger Blanford, and Hagai Netzer.