Science

I am an Assistant Astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawai'i - Manoa (Honolulu). I was previously a postdoctoral scholar in the Physics Department at the University of California, Davis, and a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia Astronomy Department. I received my PhD. in 2001 from the Caltech astronomy department, and spent two years at Johns Hopkins working with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Main Research
I am currently working on two main projects:
- The ORELSE Survey: Observations of Redshift Evolution in Large Scale Environments. This project targets twenty optically and X-ray selected clusters at 0.6<z<1.1 with multi-wavelength, wide field imaging and spectroscopy to study the cluster and galaxy properties. We are using spectroscopy from Keck, optical imaging data from Palomar and HST, near-IR imaging from Palomar, KPNO and UKIRT, infrared data from Spitzer, and X-ray imaging from Chandra.
- Galaxy evolution at low redshift through large optical sureys. This includes searching for fossil and compact groups as possible stages in massive galaxy evolution, and studying photometric properties of spheroids for clues to their formation histories.
Other current research projects
- Compact groups of galaxies. We have created a photometrically selected sample of CGs at z~0.1-0.2 from DPOSS. This sample is being followed up spectroscopically, and is being used to study galaxy evolution in a high-interaction environment.
- K+A fractions and OII/star-formation in clusters vs. field at z~1 (L.Lubin, DEEP2 team)
- X-ray and radio AGN in z~1 clusters (L.Lubin, J. McKean)
- Lensing and H₀ (C. Fassnacht)
- Optical an IR studies of Wolf-Rayet galaxies. (with R. de Carvalho, I. Fernandes)
- Optical and near-IR color gradients in elliptical galaxies. (with F. La Barbera et al.)
- The hosts of short-duration GRBs. (with J. Bloom et al.)
- Work on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
- Star/galaxy separation, galaxy number counts (total and as a function of morphology), etc. from DPOSS. (with S. Odewahn, S.G. Djorgovski)
- A spectroscopic survey of "morphologically compact" objects fron DPOSS. (with S. Odewahn & T. Small)
- The DPOSS high-z QSO survey. (with S.G. Djorgovski)
Past Research:
- Study of dynamical correlations in M31. Measurement of velocity dispersions in 21 GCs from Keck HIRES spectra, combined with HST photometry. Published ApJ,474,L19
- Examined the redshift distribution of the known damped Lyman alpha (DLA) absorbers in quasar spectra. The results of this work appears in Young Galaxies and QSO Absorption-line Systems, ASP Conf. Ser. 114, 79
- An exposure guide for taking twilight flatfields with large format CCDs. AJ,105,1206
- The velocity dispersion of RR Lyrae stars in the Galaxy (unpublished, with R.M. Rich).

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Updated 27 November 2006