Astronomy Research Faculty

Theoretical Astrophysics

Professor Shantanu Basu Dr. Shantanu Basu - Department Chair
Research Areas: I study the dynamics of star and planet formation, as well as that of the larger interstellar medium. Current topics of interest include the fragmentation properties of interstellar clouds, the formation and evolution of circumstellar disks, magnetic fields in the near-stellar environment, and applications of mathematical and statistical methods to astrophysics.
Research web site: http://www.astro.uwo.ca/~basu/rh.htm
Email: basu [at] uwo.ca
Professor Carol Jones Dr. Carol Jones
Research Areas: Circumstellar material is common among massive, early-type stars and often takes the form of an equatorial disk.

I construct computational models of these disks to try to understand how they form and what their physical conditions are. Numerical radiative transfer techniques are used to predict spectra and images of the circumstellar material. Models are constrained by comparison to images obtained via the rapidly developing field of optical interferometry and to spectroscopy obtained at a wide variety of wavelengths. This research offers many computationally challenging problems.
Research web site: http://www.astro.uwo.ca/~cjones/home.html
Email: cejones [at] uwo.ca
Professor Aaron Sigut Dr. Aaron Sigut
Research Areas: My main research interests are the radiative transfer and hydrodynamical processes occurring in circumstellar disks surrounding hot stars. I also have research projects involving the modeling of the emission line spectra of active galactic nuclei and the quantitative analysis of stellar atmospheres using non-LTE radiative transfer. All of my research projects involve large-scale, computational modeling.
Research web site: http://altair.astro.uwo.ca/~asigut/
Email: asigut [at] uwo.ca