Helene M. Courtois

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     waiting for Panstarr ........                     observing at Green Bank                   .....   enjoying the quality of the data


Keywords : local universe, cosmology at z=0, extragalactic distances, large scale structures, cartography of the universe, dark matter, dark energy



Research :

My main concern is about large scale structures of galaxies : their distribution, their large scale motions (or flows) as tracers
of the dark matter distribution and dark energy.

This scientific objective is met by measuring the distances of the galaxies. For this, we have large ongoing programs of HI surveys at GBT and of surface brightness photometry at UH2.2m. I also use Supernovae distances.

To collect and organize data about extragalactic distances, I work on two databases:  in Lyon LEDA, in Honolulu EDD.

To characterize the galaxy distribution or topology we develop statistical methods as the skeleton for example and we use cosmological numerical simulations (from Horizon project and LEGO ANR), in order to test our ideas of dark matter distribution in the large voids for example.

My closest collaborators are B. Tully, R. Fisher, K. Chiboucas, L. Rizzi, I. Karachentsev, D. Makarov

My recent students are T. Sousbie (presently postdoc at IAP, Paris),  N. Bonhomme (univ of Lyon), M. Zavodny (IFA)



    PUBLICATIONS

     IF you have time (very long download)  ==>  Movie of the simulated motions in the Local Universe : from after the big bang up to today.
How the structures have been growing and how do we move (we , the local supercluster, are the black circle) towards the large Virgo Cluster (center of the box). And how the filament Leo Spur (the black square) moves towards us and at the same time towards Virgo.

Version of the movie : December 2007, 19th
For the accepted paper ApJ 2008, Tully et al.




    Teaching and public outreach :

I teach astrophysics at Lyon university : 200 hours per year at all university levels : from 1st year to graduate students.
All my lectures and exercices are on this website : nteserveur.univ-lyon1.fr/nteastro.

I am also involved in public outreach by writing scenarii for planetarium shows, or by giving public conferences, elementary school lessons in astronomy and TV news shows on astronomy events as eclipse or others.

I used to be an active astronomy instructor for several years at the French  space camp.


   IFA Open House, 2007


Contacts :

Alternative location :  IPNL
                             4 rue Enrico Fermi - La Doua
                             69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France

tel 00 33 4 72 44 83 18  - h.courtois@ipnl.in2p3.fr

Alternative location :  IFA
                             2026 Woodlawn Drive
                             Honolulu, HI96822 , USA

  courtois@ifa.hawaii.edu



Positions, Education :


Since september 2007 : Associate professor at IPNL, University of Lyon, FRANCE
Since 2006 : SLU fellowship at IFA with B. Tully , USA
1997-2007 : Associate professor, Head of the cosmology team (2002-2007), Lyon observatory, FRANCE
1996-1997 : Postdoc at MPIA Heidelberg, GERMANY
1995 : PhD Univ. of Lyon, France and Univ. of NSW Sydney, AUSTRALIA
1993 : Specialization (master) in Astrophysics, Univ Grenoble/Lyon/ENS, FRANCE
1992 : Graduation in physics (bachelor), Univ Sherbrooke, CANADA

    Goodies

- movie of the 3D skeleton of SDSS
- movie of the skeleton of Tully distance catalog
- 2D skeleton of  2MASS extragalactic sources
- movie of the 3D skeleton of photometric redshift for 2MASS XSCZ catalog made by Tom Jarrett
-  maps of the local universe made with LEDA data
- movie of the local universe  made with LEDA data

-     PRIVATE AREA