Michael McElwain

Graduate Student in Astronomy & Astrophysics

Office: KH 3-145R, KH 6171

Phone: 310.825.3172, 310.825.1666

mailto:mcelwain AT astro.ucla.edu

Recent News:

November 2006 - Lance Armstrong and I (and another 38,000 people) ran the New York City Marathon. We both agree that the marathon was the most difficult physical competition we've experienced.

June 2006 - I spent two weeks in China studying international trade and public policy at the USTC. We traveled to Beijing, Xi'an, Hefei and Shanghai to meet with academics, politicians, businessmen, and culinary experts. On the way home, I visited a college friend who has been working in Tokyo.

Recent Talks:

First High-Contrast Science with an IFS: the Sub-Stellar Companion to GQ Lup

A Systematic Search and Characterization of Dusty Debris Disks

Young Brown Dwarfs and Giant Planets

An Astrometrically Measured Mass for Extrasolar Planet Gliese 876b

Probing Active Galactic Nuclei
with the Iron Line

Using the Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effect to Determine H_o and the Baryon Fraction

My CV

Educational Background:

B.A. (Hons), Physics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 2001
M.S., Astronomy & Astrophysics, UCLA, 2003
Ph.D., Astronomy & Astrophysics, UCLA, 2007
Postdoc., Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, 2008-2011

Research Interest:

    My primary scientific interest is substellar objects, although I'm also highly interested in infrared instrumentation. As an undergraduate, I researched the occurence of companions with late M and L type stars. I moved to UCLA in 2001, and I continued my research on substellar objects in collaboration with Dr. Adam Burgasser. I also joined the UCLA Infrared Imaging Detector Laboratory and became a core team member for the OSIRIS instrument. OSIRIS is an infrared integral field spectrograph that operates behind the W.M. Keck Observatory adaptive optics system. I have been using OSIRIS to search for faint companions in the haloes of nearby young stars. In addition, I contributed to a project that produced the most complete sample dusty debris disks and characterized their evolution over time. I am currently on the job market, and I'm working hard to complete my thesis this year.

Teaching Experience:

1. University of Pennsylvania Summer Science Academy TA, Summer 2001
   
2. Astro 003 TA, Fall 2001
3. Astro 008 TA, Winter 2002
4. Astro 003 TA, Spring 2002
5. Teaching Assistant Coordinator, Physics & Astronomy Department 2002-2004
   
6. UCLA Planetarium Coordinator 2002-2004
   
7. Center for Adaptive Optics Professional Development Workshop; Maui, HI, 2003-2005, 2007
   
8. GE 70 Teaching Fellow, 2003-2004 Academic Year
   
9. Teaching Assistant Coordinator, UCLA Office of Instructional Development 2004
   
10. Center for Adaptive Optics Akamai Observatory Short Course Instructor, 2004-2005
    
11. Center for Adaptive Optics Summer Internship Mentor 2005

Selected Publications:

"First High-Contrast Science with an Integral Field Spectrograph: the Sub-Stellar Companion to GQ Lup," McElwain, M. W., Metchev, S. A., Larkin, J. E., Barczys, M., Iserlohe, C., Krabbe, A., Quirrenbach, A., Weiss, J., Wright, S. A. 2006, ApJ, accepted

"Characterization of Dusty Debris Disks for the IRAS Catalog," Rhee, J. H., Song, I., Zuckerman, B., McElwain, M. W 2006, ApJ, accepted

"Resolved Spectroscopy of M Dwarf/L Dwarf Binaries. II. 2MASS J17072343-0558249AB," McElwain, M. W., & Burgasser, A. J. 2006, AJ, 131, 1007

"OSIRIS: a diffraction limited integral field spectrograph for Keck," Larkin, J., Barczys, M., Krabbe, A., Adkins, S., Aliado, T., Amico, P., Brims, G., Campbell, R., Canfield, J., Gasaway, T., Honey, A., Iserlohe, C., Johnson, C., Kress, E., Lafrenière, D., Lyke, J., Magnone, K., Magnone, N., McElwain, M., Moon, J., Quirrenbach, A., Skulason, G., Song, I., Spencer, M., Weiss, J., Wright, S. 2006, New Astronomy Review, 50, 362

"The 2MASS Wide-Field T Dwarf Search. III. Seven New T Dwarfs and Other Cool Dwarf Discoveries," Burgasser, A. J., McElwain, M. W., Kirkpatrick, J. D., Cruz, K. L., Tinney, C. G., Reid, I. N. 2004, AJ, 127, 2856B

"Keck Imaging of Binary L Dwarfs," Koerner, D. W., Kirkpatrick, J. D., McElwain, M. W., & Bonaventura, N. R. 1999, AJ, 526L, 25K

Posters:

"OSIRIS Spectral Imaging of Closely Separated Binaries,"McElwain, M. W., Larkin, J. E., Barczys, M., Weiss, J. L., Wright, S. A., Krabbe, A. C., Iserlohe, C., & Quirrenbach, A. 2005, American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts, 207

"The ExAOC Science Instrument: An Integral Field Unit," McElwain, M. W., Larkin, J. E., McLean, I. S. 2004, CfAO Fall Retreat, Lake Arrowhead, CA

"First T Dwarf Discoveries from the 2MASS/Lick All-Sky T Dwarf Search," McElwain, M. W., Burgasser, A. J., & Kirkpatrick, J. D. 2002, Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34, 658

"A Search for Brown Dwarf Companions to Low-Luminosity Dwarfs," McElwain, M. W., Koerner, D. W., Kirkpatrick, J. D., Reid, I. N., Allen, P. R., Murphy, G. R., 2001, American Astronomical Society Meeting, 199, 61.07

 

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