Astronomy at Texas A&M University

Texas A&M University is quickly building up an exciting astronomy program. Right now there are three faculty astronomers: Nick Suntzeff, Kevin Krisciunas, and Lifan Wang. All three of them specialize in supernova and cosmological studies. In the coming two years, the astronomy program will expand to a total of seven faculties and the research area will cover planet formation, stellar astronomy, and galaxy formation and evolution. We are involved in many of the most ambitious astronomy programs of the future: the Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) of NSF/NASA/DoE, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, and the Giant Magellan Telescope. TAMU is also playing a leading role in building up the Antarctic Plateau as a site for astronomical observations. The completely automated telescopes to be installed at Dome A, Antarctica in Jan. 2008 will be able to routinely discover planets of the size of the Earth.

For more details, please check the personal web pages of Drs Nick Suntzeff, Kevin Krisciunas, and Lifan Wang.

Astronomers at Texas A&M University are currently using world class telescopes to perform their observational studies. Dr. Nick Suntzeff and Kevin Krisciunas are members of the Carnegie Supernova Program and are using the telescopes of Carnegie Observatory. Dr. Lifan Wang has a long term collaboration with astronomers from European Southern Observatory where he is using the Very Large Telescopes of European Southern Observatory to acquire spectropolarimetry data of nearby supernovae. Dr. Lifan Wang is a collaborator of the JDEM/SNAP project. He is also working with colleagues from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to study the potential of supernova studies with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. Texas A&M University is also collaborating with an international group to build an astronomical observatory at Dome A, Antarctica.

In addition, we have also an campus observatory which can be used for educational and research purposes.

Links

Astronomical Observations from Antarctic Plateau

Giant Magellan Telescope