email: david at ucolick.org

phone: 831-459-3281

Research Interests:

My main research interest is centered on using moderate to high-resolution spectroscopy to perform abundance analysis of very metal-poor stars. These metal-poor stars act as tracers of the early Galaxy, giving insights into the first generation of stars and into the mechanisms that formed the Galaxy itself. By using surveys such as the SDSS, we can search find metal-poor stars in the Galactic halo. Following up the most promising candidates with either moderate or high-resolution spectroscopy we can then determine the abundances of various elements in these stars. These abundances act like fingerprints to the processes that created these stars, allowing us a glimpse into the early star formation environment of the Galaxy. Related to this, I am working on a program using the Lick high-precision planet finding setup to monitor a sample of metal-poor stars in an attempt to measure their companion fraction. In doing so we hope to constrain the star formation mechanisms that can exist in very metal-poor gas of the early Galaxy. I am also intersted in globular clusters to both look for signs of abundance variations in individual clusters and as labratories for how stellar evolution modifies chemical abundances.

Astronomy Links

• UCO Lick: The home page of the University of California Observatories, includes links to the Mt. Hamilton and Keck Observatory sites.
• Astronomy Picture of the Day: A great site to see random astronomical images along with good explanations.
• Simbad Query Form
• NASA ADS Query Form
• NIST Atomic Spectra Database: Database of atomic line parameters.
• MOOG, Chris Sneden's LTE spectral synthesis and analysis code.
• Goddard's IDL Astronomy User's Library.
• An excellent explanation and intoduction to obtaining stellar properties from spectra, by Michael Briley.
• Night Sky Live: All sky cameras from various observatories.
• Mauna Kea weather status
• International Astronomy Meetings, from the CFH.