David Koo's Home Page 

UCO/Lick Observatory
University of California, Santa Cruz
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
koo@ucolick.org

Latest Modification 2013 April 1

Course Information:

Spring 2013: Astronomy 13

2013S: AY13    Galaxies, Cosmology, and High Energy Astrophysics.
 

  Research:

DEEP is my major research area involving Keck observations of faint galaxies. Several pilot redshift surveys totaling over 1000 galaxies to I ~ 24 are now  complete as part of DEEP1.  The main phase of DEEP , called DEEP2, is also now finished.  DEEP2  used over 90  Keck nights with a  powerful instrument (DEIMOS) to secure  about  40,000 galaxies at redshifts z ~ 1. Such a large sample is needed to probe the large scale structure of galaxies and unravel the details and physical mechanisms involved in galaxy formation and evolution.  In one of the 4 regions of the DEEP2 survey,  known as the Extended Groth Strip (EGS), a consortium of teams  known as AEGIS, has added a suite of deep to very deep panchromatic data ranging from the X-rays to radio. These data allow powerful probes of distant Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) with supermassive black holes,  as well as luminous, dusty starburst galaxies. In this region, another 10,000 galaxies was observed with DEIMOS as part of DEEP3 and completed in 2011. Current and future plans include follow-up multi-object near-infrared spectroscopy with the newly operational MOSFIRE instrument on Keck. 

CfA0 , the Center for Adaptive Optics, was an NSF Science and Technology Center from 2001-2010 and had its headquarters located at the University of California, Santa Cruz. As one of its founding members, some of my research involved the use of adaptive optics to obtain high spatial resolution studies in the near-infrared of extragalactic sources. The CfAO Treasury Survey (CATS)  combined HST images with AO images and spectra in the near-IR to study distant galaxies, AGN, supernovae, gravitational lenses, etc.

My multi-wavelength research as part of AEGIS has recently expanded to include 4 of the other best observed fields for faint multi-wavelength extragalactic research: GOODS-North and GOODS-South, an  UltraVISTA portion of COSMOS, and the central part of the UKIDSS Ultra-Deep Survey (UDS) fields.  I am a senior member of two surveys that have now solidified these 5 as the very best legacy fields for the foreseeable future: one led by G. Fazio (CfA) is finished and gathered 2100 hours of Spitzer IRAC data (SEDS) and the other, to be finished in 2013, a 900 orbit survey using HST WFC3 near-IR and a 900 ACS images survey (CANDELS) as part of the HST Multi-cycle Treasury Program.

  Recent Publications:

Here    is a link to my most recent 100 publications using ADS.  For refereed publications ordered from highest citations first (citation ordered).
 
 

  Postdoc Positions:

We filled one postdoctoral scholar position for 2-3 years starting fall 2012; we expect no new openings before fall 2014 and will advertise any such openings in the AAS Job Register.