Need to learn more about my research?
I work on stellar pulsation, evolution, cosmology and the extra galactic distance scale. My research is funded
by NASA/HST and the American Astronomical Society. There is plenty of scope for undergraduates to particpate and make
important contributions. In January 2007, I will be taking 5 undergraduates to present their work at the winter meeting
of the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, Washington.
Currently I have the following research grants:
NASA/HST Cycle 14 (co-I): A recalibration of the distances to 22 galaxies observed by the HST using standardized techniques.
Some of the papers below resulted from this grant.
American Astronomical Society: Small research grant to develop the testimator method plus other statistical techniques
to investigate the non-linearity of the LMC Cepheid PL relation.
American Astronomical Society: The Chretien International Research Award. A long term observation project in
collaboration with the Federal University of
Santa Catarina, Brazil to use the Brazilian National telescope facility to observe Cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds and to
develop a robotic telescope.
Entergy: to develop and give a series of planetarium/science shows to local elementary schools that match with
the the fifth grade curriculum.
Dean's grant for summer research ($2000): to analyze hydrodynamical models of RR Lyrae stars.
Scholarly and Creative Award for students ($1000): to work on a number of projects related to Cepheids and RR Lyraes.
In the past I have had the following awards:
HST/NASA Cycle 10 Award on "A comparison of the Cepheid and Supernova type II distance scales."
HST/NASA Cycle 9 Award on "A recalibration of the Cepheid distance scale using PL relations at maximum light."
HST/NASA Cycle 9 EPO on "Planetarium shows and Astronomy: Leading children into scientific curiosity."
Undergraduate Research Projects
Data Reduction of JHK LMC data taken with CPAPIR: Notes for Dan Crain and Greg Feiden are here. and here.
Analysis of Cepheids in IC 1613 and M31: Daniel Crain, Greg Feiden, Dylan Wallace, Sean Scott, Michelle Schoonmaker, Sam McCabe, Rick Stevens, a
poster presented at the 2007 American Astronomical Society meeting, Seattle 2007, is here.
Principal Component Analysis of RR Lyraes: Greg Feiden, 2006, a poster presented at the 2006 Sigma Xi undergraduate research conference,
Cornell is here.
An investigation into the properties of RR Lyraes at Maximum and Minimum Light, a poster presented
at the 2007 American Astronomical Society meeting, Seattle 2007, is here.
A theoretical investigation into Period-Color Relations for Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a poster
presented at the 2007 American Astronomical Society meeting, Seattle 2007, is here.
Metallicity effects in infra-red Cepheid light curves: Dylan Wallace, a poster presented at the 2006 Sigma Xi undergraduate research conference, Cornell, 2006 is here.
A testimator based approach to the non-linearity of the Cepheid PL relation in the LMC, a poster presented at
the 2007 American Astronomical Society meeting,
Seattle 2007, is here.
The Use of a high school Observatory to study the
metallicity dependence of the Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relation, Jim Young and Sean Scott, 2006, a poster presented at the 2007 AAS meeting in Seattle is here.
An intro to CCD data reduction in Astronomy for students working on this is available here.
A picture (4 30 second exposures added together) of M51, taken by Alan Ominsky and myself with the SCC high school telescope, and a ST9XE CCD without any filters is
here.
Olbers paradox and Cantor dust, David Eno 2006/2007
A picture of five SUNY Oswego undergraduates, Greg Feiden, Richard Stevens,
Sean Scott, Jim Young, me and Daniel Crain at the American Astronomical Society winter
meeting in Seattle, January 2007 is here.
Two posters I gave at the American Association of Physics teachers meeting in February 2010 are
on "An Intermeidate Level Astronomy Cource Centered Around Hubble's Law" shown here,
and "Beginning Group Work in Introductory Astronomy Classes" shown here.
A seminar I gave at the University of Florida in September 2009 is here.
A seminar outlining some of these results, given at Ithaca College on February 28, 2007, can be found
here.
A more specialized seminar outlining the theory behind some of my research, given at the NOAO, May 2007
can be found here.
A contributed talk to be given at a Stellar Pulsation Meeting in Vancouver, July 2007, can be foundhere.
A seminar given at the National Laboratory for Astrophysics, Minas Gerais, Brazil, Mackenzie University, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil and San Diego State University, USA, July 2007 is here.
A talk given at the stellar evolution conference "21st century challenges in Stellar Evolution", Cefalu Italy, August 2007, can be found here.
Some of my recent papers can be found below:
A comparison of Testimation and Schwarz Information Criterion for Heteroskedasticity
IRAC Band PL relations from LMC Cepheids: Application to Three Nearby Galaxies
Period-Luminosity Relations Derived From the OGLE-III Fundamental
Mode Cepheids
Testing Mass Loss in Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheids using Infrared and Optical Observations
The Period-Luminosity Relation for the Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheids
from Spitzer Archival Data
Testing the nonlinearity of the BVIcJHK period-luminosity relations for the Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheids
Large Magellanic Cloud Distance from Cepheid Variables using Least Squares Solutions
Period-Color and amplitude-color relations in classical Ceheid variables V: The Small
Magellanic Cloud Cepheid models
The Detailed Forms of the LMC Cepheid PL and PLC Relations
Semi-Empirical Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relations in Sloan Magnitudes
Investigations of the Non-Linear LMC Cepheid Period-Luminosity
Relation with Testimator and Schwarz Information Criterion Methods
Nonlinear Period-Luminosity Relation for the
Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheids: Myths and Truths
The Hubble Constant from Type Ia Supernova Calibrated with the Linear and Non-Linear Cepheid Period-Luminosity relation
Period-color and amplitude-color relations in classical
Cepheid variables III: The Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheid models and the new empirical relations
Period-color and amplitude-color relations in classical Cepheid variables IV: The multiphase relations
Extending the evidence for the non-linearity of the
period-luminosity relations as seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheids from optical to
near infrared
The linearity of the Wessenheit Function for the
Large Magellanic CLoud Cepheids
Reconstructing Cepheid Light Curves with Fourier
techniques II: Catalogue of the Fourier Parameters for OGLE LMC Fundamental Mode Cepheids
Geometry of the Large Magellanic Cloud Disk: Results from
MACHO and the Two Micron All Sky Survey
Period Color and Amplitude Color
relations for LMC RR Lyraes
Principal Component Analysis
of RR Lyrae light curves
Period Color
and Amplitude Color relations in classical Cepheid variables II: the Galactic Cepheid models
Period Color
and Amplitude Color relations in classical Cepheid variables
The extra-galactic distance scale from LMC and Galactic period luminosity relations
Reconstructing
Fourier Light curves with Fourier Techniques: I The Fourier Expansion and Inter-relations
On the Use of
Prinicpal Component Analysis in analysing Cepheid light curves
Period Luminosity relations for Galactic Cepheid variables with independent distance measurements
NGC1637: A Direct comparison of the Cepheid and type II supernovae distance scales
