Faculty Research   -   Post Doc Research   -   Graduate Research   -   Alumni Research   -   Select Publications

Faculty Research

• Sarah Gallagher focuses on characterizing energetic outflows from accreting supermassive black holes using multiwavelength facilities including the Chandra and Spitzer observatories. Her other research interests include compact galaxy groups, the starburst/AGN connection, quasar spectral energy distributions, and high resolution X-ray spectroscopy.
• James Larkin uses infrared spectroscopy and diffraction limited imaging to study nearby active galaxies, galaxy evolution, and ultraluminous infrared galaxies.
• Matthew Malkan studies the nature of active galactic nuclei and quasars, and the evolution of young galaxies in the high-redshift Universe. He is also working on the cosmic production of infrared radiation.
• William Newman is a professor in the Departments of Earth and Space Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, and Mathematics. His astrophysical research focuses on the the dynamics and statistics of galaxy clusters, magnetic fields in the intercluster medium, and accretion processes in AGNs. His broader research relates to nonlinear dynamical problems, such as those encountered in solar system dynamics.
• Michael Rich is a member of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer science team, a UV sky survey satellite. Rich's research on GALEX addresses the study of star formation in the 0
• Steve Furlanetto is a theoretical cosmologist studying the first galaxies in the Universe and their effects on the Universe around them, especially the "reionization era" when high-energy radiation from the first stars ionized the tenuous material between galaxies.
• Shoko Sakai's research focuses on two areas: (1) determining the star formation rate in the current universe and examining the star formation properties of various morphological types of galaxies by imaging nearby clusters of galaxies, and (2) investigating the three-dimentional structure of the local universe by measuring accurate distances to galaxies, in order to find out how much dark matter exists on scales of a few Mpcs.
• Jean Turner uses the Keck, the VLA, infrared, millimeter, and sub-millimeter telescopes to study star formation in starbursts, especially super star cluster formation.

Postdoctoral Research

• Andreas Koch's main field of research is the study of stellar populations and stellar chemical abundances in order to gain insight in galactic formation and evolution. This will be accomplished by deriving metallicities and chemical abundance ratios ([alpha/Fe]) from low-resolution spectroscopy in M31. Furthermore, high-resolution abundance studies of giants in the Galactic bulge will aid to underpin the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. Further projects comprise analysing metallicities and chemical abundances in dwarf spheroidal galaxies, both of satellites of the Milky Way and companions to M31, as well as the investigation of stellar kinematics in nearby dSphs, e.g., LeoII.
• Nate McCrady studies extragalactic clustered star formation. In particular, he uses high resolution spectroscopy plus adaptive optics and HST imaging to characterize young, massive "super star clusters" (SSCs). SSCs are common in merger and interaction galaxies, and can have millions of solar masses in stars. Observations of SSCs place important constraints for models of high mass star formation, and provide insight into the formation of globular clusters. He is also interested in how dissociation of massive star clusters creates stellar populations in galaxies. Adaptive optics imaging in the infrared enables Nate to probe the stellar content of the dusty starburst galaxies in which SSCs are common.
• Andrei Mesinger studies the dawn of the first astrophysical structures and how they and subsequent generations impacted their environments and reionized the universe. He uses analytic, numerical, as well as semi-numerical tools in these investigations.
• Joerg-Uwe Pott's research focusses on the application of new high angular resolution techniques to observe dusty stellar environments, phenomena in the Galactic center, and AGNs. He likes the challenges of interferometry from radio to optical wavelengths, and uses telescope arrays to resolve phenomena close to the central black holes in galaxies. Currently he is involved in the ASTRA-sensitivity upgrade of the Keck Interferometer as instrument scientist, and spends half of his time at the Keck telescopes.

Graduate Student Research

• Christopher Crockett is working with Dr. James Larkin in the Infrared Instrumentation Lab to characterize the performance of the HAWAII-2RG detector subsystem which lies at the heart of both MOSFIRE, a multi-object spectrometer intended for Keck, and GPI, the Gemini Planet Imager being built for the Gemini South telescope.
• Kevin Hainline works with Matt Malkan, using Spitzer IRS data to investigate the relationship between AGN and starburst galaxies.
• Alaina Henry works with Matthew Malkan, on the NICMOS Parallel Survey. The main focus of this survey is to learn about galaxy formation and evolution by selecting and studying evolved, red galaxies at z ~ 2.
• Kathy Kornei works with Nate McCrady to study the properties of super star clusters within the local galaxy NGC 253.
• Chun Ly works with Matthew Malkan on the Subaru Deep Field to study the redshift evolution of over 100,000 galaxies. In addition, Chun is working with R. Craig Walker (NRAO) and William Junor (LANL) on imaging the radio jet of M87 at 43 GHz to study jet collimation and launching mechanisms around a supermassive black hole.
• Ryan Mallery works with Mike Rich studying GALEX detected galaxies in the optical wavelengths with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey in order to determine if they are dominated by AGN or star formation.
• David Rodriguez works with Matt Malkan to look for correlations in the ultraviolet and optical line fluxes of Seyfert galaxies in the extended 12 micron galaxy sample.
• Chao-Wei Tsai works with Jean Turner on the ongoing star formation activities in nearby galaxies, using imaging and spectroscopic data mainly from the VLA and Keck telescopes. He also works on dust and molecular gas line emission from merging galaxies in the sub-mm region.
• Shelley Wright works with James Larkin using OSIRIS with the Keck II Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics (AO) system to study the formation and evolution of galactic disks. She is also a CATS team member which uses the NIRC2-AO system to observe thousands of galaxies with AO in the deepest fields covered by the Great Observatories.

Select Publications:

• Photo-heating and the fate of hard photons during the reionisation of HeII by quasars, James S. Bolton, S. Peng Oh, & Steven R. Furlanetto (2008), MNRAS, submitted
• UV Radiative Feedback During the Advanced Stages of Reionization, Andrei Mesinger & Mark Dijkstra (2008), MNRAS, submitted
• Probing Reionization with the 21 cm-Galaxy Cross Power Spectrum, Adam Lidz, Oliver Zahn, Steven Furlanetto, Matthew McQuinn, Lars Hernquist, Matias Zaldarriaga (2008), ApJ, submitted
• A Lyman Break Galaxy Candidate at z~9, Alaina L. Henry, Matthew A. Malkan, James W. Colbert, Brian Siana, Harry I. Teplitz, & Patrick McCarthy (2008), ApJL, in press
• Inhomogeneous Helium Reionization and the Equation of State of the Intergalactic Medium, Steven Furlanetto & S. Peng Oh (2007), ApJ, in press
• The History and Morphology of Helium Reionization, Steven Furlanetto & S. Peng Oh (2007), ApJ, in press
• Overdensity of i'-Dropout Galaxies in the Subaru Deep Field: A Candidate Protocluster at z ~ 6, Kazuaki Ota, Nobunari Kashikawa, Matthew A. Malkan, Masanori Iye, Tadashi Nakajima, Tohru Nagao, Kazuhiro Shimasaku, & Poshak Gandhi (2008), ApJL, submitted
• Cosmic Evolution of Black Holes and Spheroids. III. The M-sigma relation in the last six billion years, J.-H. Woo, T. Treu, M. A. Malkan, & R. Blandford (2008), ApJ, in press
• Fossil Ionized Bubbles Around Dead Quasars During Reionization, Steven Furlanetto, Zoltan Haiman, & S. Peng Oh (2008), ApJ, submitted
• Imaging a Jet Base - Prospects with M87, R. Craig Walker, Chun Ly, William Junor, & Phillip E. Hardee (2008), to appear in "Approaching Micro-Arcsecond Resolution with VSOP-2: Astrophysics and Technology"
• The Varied Fates of z~2 Star-forming Galaxies, Charlie Conroy, Alice E. Shapley, Jeremy L. Tinker, Michael R. Santos, & Gerard Lemson (2007), ApJ, in press
• The Color Bimodality in Galaxy Clusters since z = 0.9, Y.-S. Loh, et al. (2008), ApJ, in press
• A new abundance scale for the globular cluster 47 Tuc, Andreas Koch & Andrew McWilliam (2008), AJ, in press
• Complexity on Small Scales III: Iron and alpha Element Abundances in the Carina Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy, A. Koch et al. (2008), AJ, in press
• Metallicities and Physical conditions in Star-forming Galaxies at z~1.0-1.5, Xin Liu, Alice E. Shapley, Alison L. Coil, Jarle Brinchmann, & Chung-Pei Ma (2008), ApJ, in press
• Triggered or Self-Regulated Star Formation within Intermediate Redshift Luminous Infrared Galaxies (I). Morphologies and Spatially Resolved Spectral Energy Distributions, J. Melbourne, M. Ammons, S. A. Wright, A. Metevier, E. Steinbring, C. Max, D. C. Koo, J. E. Larkin, & M. Barczys (2008), ApJ, in press
• Circumnuclear Gas in Seyfert 1 Galaxies: Morphology, Kinematics, and Direct Measurement of Black Hole Masses, E. K. S. Hicks & M. A. Malkan (2007), ApJ, in press
• Kinematic and Chemical constraints on the formation of M31's inner and outer halo, A. Koch, R.M. Rich, D. Reitzel, N.F. Martin, R.A. Ibata, S.C. Chapman, S.R. Majewski, M. Mori, Y.-S. Loh, & J.C. Ostheimer (2007), Submitted to ApJ
• The Once and Future Andromeda Stream, Masao Mori & R. Michael Rich (2007), Submitted to ApJL
• Better age estimations using UV-optical colours: breaking the age-metallicity degeneracy, S. Kaviraj, S. -C. Rey, R. M. Rich, Y. -W. Lee, S. -J. Yoon, & S. K. Yi (2007), MNRAS, 381, L74
• Nuclear Bar Catalyzed Star Formation: 13^CO, C18^O and Molecular Gas Properties in the Nucleus of Maffei 2, David S. Meier, Jean L. Turner, & Robert. L. Hurt (2007), ApJ, in press
• Spitzer-IRS high resolution spectroscopy of the 12\mu m Seyfert galaxies: I. First results, Silvia Tommasin, Luigi Spinoglio, Matthew A. Malkan, Howard Smith, Eduardo Gonzalez-Alfonso, & Vassilis Charmandaris (2007), Submitted to ApJ
• Dust in the wind: Crystalline silicates, corundum and periclase in PG 2112+059, F. Markwick-Kemper, S. C. Gallagher, D. C. Hines, & J. Bouwman (2007), ApJ, in press
• The Revealing Dust: Mid-Infrared Activity in Hickson Compact Group Galaxy Nuclei, S. C. Gallagher, et al. (2007), ApJ, in press
• Chemical Complexity in Galaxies, Jean L. Turner and David S. Meier (2007), to appear in Astrophysics and Space Science Science with ALMA: a new era for Astrophysics 2006
• Progress Toward a VLBA Movie of the Jet Collimation Region in M87, R. C. Walker, C. Ly, W. Junor and P. E. Hardee (2007), ASP Conf. Ser., in press
• Circumnuclear Gas in Seyfert 1 Galaxies: Morphology, Kinematics, and Direct Measurement of Black Hole Masses, E. Hicks and M. Malkan (2007), ApJ, in press
• The Infrared Properties of Hickson Compact Groups, K.E. Johnson, J.E. Hibbard, S.C. Gallagher, J.C. Charlton, A.E. Hornschemeier, T.H. Jarrett, & A.E. Reines (2007), AJ, 134, 1522
• Keck/Deimos Spectroscopy of a GALEX UV Selecte Sample from the Medium Imaging Survey, Ryan Mallery et al. (2007), ApJS, in press
• VLA H53alpha observations of the central region of the Super Star Cluster Galaxy NGC 5253, C. A. Rodriguez-Rico, W. M. Goss, J. L. Turner, & Y. Gomez (2007), ApJ, in press
• The cluster galaxy luminosity function at $z=0.3$: a recent origin for the faint-end upturn ?, Daniel Harsono and Roberto De Propris (2007), ApJ, in press
• The Extraordinary Infrared Spectrum of NGC 1222 (Mkn 603), Sara Beck and Jean Turner (2007), ApJ, in press
• Cosmic Evolution of Black Holes and Spheroids. II: Scaling Relations at z=0.36, Tommaso Treu, Jong-Hak Woo, Matthew A. Malkan, & Roger D. Blandford (2007), ApJ, in press
• Nitrogen Production in Starburst Galaxies Detected by GALEX, Ryan Mallery et al. (2007), ApJ, in press
• Radio Through X-ray Spectral Energy Distributions of 38 Broad Absorption Line Quasars, S. C. Gallagher, et al. (2007), ApJ, in press
• UV Star Formation Rates in the Local Universe, Samir Salim et al. (2007), ApJS, in press
• Stellar kinematics in the remote Leo II dwarf spheroidal galaxy -- Another brick in the wall, Andreas Koch et al. (2007), ApJ, in press
• Super Star Cluster Velocity Dispersions and Virial Masses in the M82 Nuclear Starburst, Nate McCrady and James R. Graham (2007), ApJ, in press
• An Investigation into the Effects of Luminosity on the Mid-Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions of Radio-Quiet Quasars, S. C. Gallagher, et al. (2007), ApJ, in press
• Stratified Quasar Winds: Integrating X-ray and Infrared Views of Broad Absorption Line Quasars, S. C. Gallagher and J. E. Everett (2007), in press
• High Frequency VLBI Imaging of the Jet Base of M87, Chun Ly, R. Craig Walker, and William Junor (2007), ApJ, in press
• A Search for Lyman Break Galaxies at z>8 in the NICMOS Parallel Imaging Survey, A. L. Henry, M. A. Malkan, J. W. Colbert, B. Siana, H. I. Teplitz, P. McCarthy, & L. Yan (2007), ApJL, in press
• The Luminosity Function and Star Formation Rate Between Redshifts of 0.07 and 1.47 for Narrow-band Emitters in the Subaru Deep Field, C. Ly, M. A. Malkan, et al. (2006), ApJ, in press
• The Bright Ages Survey. II. Evolution of Luminosity, Dust Extinction, and Star Formation from z=0.5 to z=2.5, J. W. Colbert, M. A. Malkan, & R. M. Rich (2006), ApJ, 648, 250
• Cosmic Evolution of Black Holes and Spheroids. I. The MBH-&sigma Relation at z = 0.36, J. H. Woo, T. Treu, M. A. Malkan, & R. D. Blandford (2006), ApJ, 645, 900
• An Exploratory Chandra Survey of a Well-Defined Sample of 35 Large Bright Quasar Survey Broad Absorption Line Quasars, S.C. Gallagher, W. N. Brandt, G. Chartas, R. Priddey, G. P. Garmire, & R. M. Sambruna (2006), ApJ, 644, 709
• Seyfert Galaxies and the Hard X-ray Background: Artificial Chandra Observations of z = 0.3 Active Galaxies, K. C. Peterson, S. C. Gallagher, A. E. Hornschemeier, M. P. Muno, & E. C. Bullard (2006), AJ, 131, 133
• Integral Field Spectroscopy of a Candidate Disk Galaxy at z~1.5 using Laser Guide Star Adaptive Optics, S. A. Wright, J. E. Larkin, M. Barczys, D. K. Erb, C. Iserlohe, A. Krabbe, D. R. Law, M. W. McElwain, A. Quirrenbach, C. C. Steidel, & J. Weiss (2006), ApJ accepted
• New Constraints on the Star Formation Histories and Dust Attenuation of Galaxies in the Local Universe from GALEX, S. Salim, et al. (2005), ApJL, 619, L39
• Star Formation in Emission-Line Galaxies between Redshifts of 0.8 and 1.6, E. K. S. Hicks, M. A. Malkan, H. I. Teplitz, P. J. McCarthy, & L. Yan (2002), ApJ, 581, 205
• Infrared Emission from the Radio Supernebula in NGC 5253: A Proto-Globular Cluster?, V. Gorjian, J. L. Turner, and S. C. Beck (2001), ApJL, 554, L29
• An RXTE survey of Long-Term X-ray Variability in Seyfert 1 Galaxies, A. Markowitz, and R. Edelson (2001), ApJ, 547, 684
• CO and Neutral Gas in the Disk of the Spiral Galaxy IC 342, L. P. Crosthwaite, J. L. Turner, R. L. Hurt, D. A. Levine, R. N. Martin, & P. T. P. Ho (2001), AJ, 122
• Molecular Gas and Star Formation in NGC 3077, D. S. Meier, J. L. Turner, & S. C. Beck (2001), AJ, 122, 1770
• Intensive HST, RXTE, and ASCA Monitoring of NGC 3516: Evidence against Thermal Reprocessing, R. Edelson, et al. (2000), ApJ, 534, 180
• Rapid Optical Variability in Active Galactic Nuclei and Quasar, W. Webb and M. Malkan (2000), ApJ, 540, 652
• Exploring the Structure of Distant Galaxies with Adaptive Optics on the Keck-II Telescope, J. E. Larkin, T. M. Glassman, P. Wizinowich, D. S. Acton, O. Lai, A. V. Filippenko, A. L. Coil, & T. Matheson (2000), PASP, 112, 1526
• The Elusive Old Population of the Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy Leo I, E. V. Held, I. Saviane, Y. Momany, & G. Carraro (2000), ApJL, 530, L85
• The H&alpha Luminosity Function and Global Star Formation Rate from Redshifts of 1-2, L. Yan, P. J. McCarthy, W. Freudling, H. I. Teplitz, E. M. Malumuth, R. J. Weymann, & M. A. Malkan (1999), ApJL, 519, L47
• Faint Field Galaxies around Bright Stars: A New Strategy for Imaging at the Diffraction Limit, J. E. Larkin and T. M. Glassman (1999), PASP, 111, 1410
• A Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Survey of Nearby Active Galactic Nuclei, M. Malkan, et al. (1998), ApJS, 117, 25
• A Near Infrared Spectroscopic study of LINER galaxies, J. Larkin, et al. (1997), ApJS, 114, 59

Former Graduate Students and Postdocs

• Matthew Barczys works with James Larkin in the UCLA Infrared Imaging Lab where they are developing OSIRIS -- an adaptive optics near-infrared integral field spectrograph for the Keck Telescope, and SHARC -- a near-IR, wide-field imager for Keck AO. He also works on galaxy evolution and galaxy mergers.
  
• Joseph Rhee worked with James Larkin to carry out near-IR & mid-IR spectroscopic surveys of Seyfert galaxies using the Gemini twin-channel near-IR camera at the Lick telescope and LWS at the Keck telescope.
  
• Alex Markowitz (grad) is working with Rick Edelson on X-ray variability timing and spectral analysis of Active Galactic Nuclei, using data from both the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton) .
  
• Ivo Saviane (postdoc) was conducting a long term study (using wide-field imaging) of the substructures in Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxies as traced by their different generations of stars.
  
• James Colbert (grad) worked with Matthew Malkan on the discovery and study of high redshift galaxies using their colors from the optical through the infrared and then KECK spectroscopic follow-up. He is also searching for infrared counterparts to DLA absorption line objects using HST's NICMOS camera and finishing up a study on the morphology and possible evolution of a sample of isolated elliptical galaxies.
  
• Pat Crosthwaite (grad) worked with Jean Turner on large scale mapping of CO molecule line emission (the primary tracer of molecular hydrogen, H2) using the NRAO 12m telescope at Kitt Peak, producing the first fully sampled maps covering the entire optical disks of IC 342, M83, NGC 1097, NGC 4736 and NGC 6946 (nearby, gas rich, spiral galaxies). He is also studying neutral carbon (CI) tracers of photodissociation regions with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory and deeply embedded star cluster formation with Br line observations at Keck.
  
• Tiffany Glassman (grad) worked with James Larkin on diffraction limited imaging of faint field galaxies with the Keck Adaptive Optics system. These observations will yield the basic morphological parameters of the galaxies and provide insight into galaxy evolution.
  
• Dave Meier (grad) worked with Jean Turner on the physical and chemical conditions of molecular gas in the nuclei of starburst galaxies.
  
• Ranga-Ram Chary (grad) worked with Eric Becklin on high-resolution, near and mid-infrared imaging of prototypical low luminosity AGN.
• Varoujan Gorjian (grad), Matthew Malkan and undergraduate researcher Raymond Tam have compiled a snapshot study of nearby Seyferts using the Hubble Space Telescope.
• Tommaso Treu (postdoc)
• Harry Teplitz (grad)
• Samir Salim (postdoc) worked with Michael Rich to investigate the star formation history of the galaxies in the local universe by investigating their broad-band SEDs from ultraviolet (GALEX) and optical (SDSS) surveys.
• Erin Hicks (grad) worked with Matthew Malkan using NIRSPEC-AO on the Keck telescope to study gas dynamics in the inner regions of Seyfert I galaxies. These dynamics were then modeled to determine the mass of the galaxy's supermassive black hole. She also studied starburst galaxies with LRIS on Keck.