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I am currently leading the GHOSTS Survey, a
large HST survey of the resolved stelllar populations of bulges, thick
disks, and halos of nearby, massive disk galaxies. Hierarchical
galaxy formation in a LambdaCDM cosmology has become the standard
paradigm in recent years. However, our understanding of the galaxy
formation process is incomplete. Which high redshift galaxy building
blocks end up in what kind of local galaxies? How much of the stellar
content of the different galaxy components (bulge, thin and thick
disk, stellar halo) is created in situ and how much is accreted? How
does the current accretion rate compare to LambdaCDM predictions? What
regulates star formation in disk galaxies? To address these questions
we have started the GHOSTS (Galaxy Halos, Outer disks, Substructure,
Thick disks, and Star clusters) Survey, using HST to perform stellar
archaeology in the outskirts of 14 nearby disk galaxies (8 of which
are edge-on). I am also co-investigator of ANGST, a large HST survey
using similar techniques as GHOSTS (resolved stellar populations) to
study galaxies in the local volume to reconstruct their star formation
history.
The precursor of GHOSTS was an HST survey of nearby edge-on galaxies to investigate their dust lane properties and stellar content. Anil Seth maintains a web site with pretty pictures from this survey.
My Thesis is fairly representative of the rest of my work. All data presented in the thesis is available; the images, the profiles, the bulge/disk ratios and other useful parameters and the file and data descriptions. To see the lineage that led to this thesis have a look at my Academic Genealogy (Ph.D. Family Tree).
Since my thesis I have written some more articles, so have a look at my Publications Page or at a PDF version of my CV and Publication List.
I am involved in a number of collaborative projects. Here are some web links
- ANGST & ANGRR A large HST survey to study the resolved stellar populations of galaxies in the local volume to reconstruct their star formation history.
- OSU Bright Galaxy Survey
- Halpha Galaxy Survey
- EFAR Team Documents (password protected)