Eric Gawiser

I am an NSF Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow and Andes Fellow working at the Astronomy Department of Yale University and the Departamento de Astronomia of Universidad de Chile.
office: 251 Gibbs Lab
phone (203)432-3023
fax (203)432-5048
e-mail: gawiser@astro.yale.edu
Research interests: Galaxy formation, cosmological structure formation.
I am conducting a square degree UBVRIz' survey of the high-redshift universe. Quasars, Lyman break galaxies, and Damped Lyman alpha Absorbers represent families of protogalaxies selected in different ways. My goal is to determine the extent to which these different types of protogalaxies overlap by measuring their stellar properties and clustering environments. This should provide a useful set of clues to the mystery of galaxy formation.
You are welcome to look at a postscript version of my CV and at my publications on astro-ph or ADS. My public IDL code observable 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 was also involved in 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.
See what I used to look like during a crunchy Berkeley phase a few years ago.

I acknowledge the support of Fundacion Andes and the NSF. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. As if that wasn't obvious.