Eric Gawiser

Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Rutgers University
office: 303 Serin Physics Building (West Wing)
phone (732)445-5500 x2733
fax (732)445-4343
e-mail: gawiser@physics.rutgers.edu
Research interests: Observational cosmology, Galaxy formation.

I serve as PI of MUSYC, which is a square degree UBVRIzJHK survey plus satellite coverage from Chandra, XMM, HST-ACS, and Spitzer-IRAC+MIPS and spectroscopic follow-up using Magellan, Gemini, and VLT. Our deep images of the high-redshift universe reveal Lyman Alpha Emitters, Lyman Break Galaxies, Active Galactic Nuclei, Distant Red Galaxies and Damped Lyman alpha Absorbers, which represent families of galaxies selected in different ways. Measuring the star formation rates, stellar masses, ages and dark matter masses of these galaxies determines the extent to which the different types overlap and whether they constitute an evolutionary sequence fundamental to the process of galaxy formation. MUSYC has published several major advances in the study of galaxy formation and evolution. I led the recent discovery that Lyman Alpha Emitters represent the progenitors of present-day L* galaxies, observed during an early starburst phase when they had low stellar mass, no measurable dust, and very high specific star formation rates.

I am a member of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope science collaborations on Galaxies and Large-Scale Structure/Baryon Acoustic Oscillations.

I serve on the NOAO Users Committee; we are always open to feedback from members of the community.

I am teaching Physics 110: Astronomy and Cosmology (Stars, Galaxies and the Universe) during Fall 2009 (and also taught this course in Fall 2007 and Spring 2008).

I am also teaching Physics 689: Graduate Seminar on Galaxy Formation this semester and taught Physics 608: Graduate Cosmology in Spring 2009.

I also work on the Extragalactic Atlas of the Digital Universe project at the Hayden Planetarium, where I serve as a Hayden Associate.

You are welcome to look at PDF versions of my CV and publications (or check astro-ph or ADS).

From 2002-2006, I was an NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow in the Yale Center for Astronomy & Astrophysics. From 2002-2004, I was also an Andes Prize Fellow, which is a joint appointment at the Departamento de Astronomia of Universidad de Chile and the Astronomy Department at Yale University.

I wrote a public IDL code called observable that calculates the airmass, parallactic angle, and atmospheric differential refraction for use in planning imaging and multislit spectroscopy.

From 1999-2002, I was a postdoctoral research physicist at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the University of California at San Diego. My research at U.C. San Diego involved an empirical study of galaxy formation in collaboration with Art Wolfe, Jason Prochaska, and Jeff Cooke. We performed multislit observations with the Keck telescope to find Lyman-break galaxies near known Damped Lyman-alpha Absorption Systems. This allowed us to study the emission properties of the DLAs as well as whether they cluster with emission-selected high-redshift galaxies. Our first results were published in ApJ Letters (astro-ph/0103387). Some of the details are described in a poster that we presented at a recent AAS meeting.

Looking for help reducing Keck LRIS(B) or ESI data? Check out my data reduction cookbooks!

Click here for a compilation of all reported CMB anisotropy detections and upper limits from 1992-2000, or here for more info on UCSD's Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation Discussion Group.

I received my doctorate in theoretical cosmology from U.C. Berkeley in May 1999. My dissertation with Professor Joseph Silk, Big Bang Leftovers in the Microwave: Cosmology with the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, is available here. Joe Silk and I also wrote a review article on the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation.

I led the WOMBAT project to estimate the Galactic and extragalactic foreground contribution to microwave anisotropy. Extragalactic foregrounds will significantly affect the MAP and Planck satellites, balloon-borne experiments such as MAXIMA and BOOMERANG, and interferometers including VSA, CBI, and DASI because of their high resolution.

I lectured Astronomy 10 at U.C. Berkeley during Summer 1999.