My main books: The Observation and Analysis of Stellar Photospheres

                            Lectures on Spectral-Line Analysis: F, G, and K Stars

     

My research interests include:

        -- Fourier analysis of spectral lines

        -- Granulation in stellar photospheres

        -- Rotation of stars, magnetic braking, angular-momentum evolution

        -- Surface features and magnetic activity

        -- Temperature measurements of stars

        -- Radial velocities

        -- Radii

        -- Elginfield Observatory and coudé spectrograph

If you are a non-scientist of a budding scientist, you may wish to read this page in order to help you better understand my research.

You've got to be crazy to want to stay up all night looking at stars...I get that a lot, and without taking sides on the 'crazy' issue, I can tell you that observing stars and analyzing starlight has got to be the best profession around.  Although I've been interested in stars since childhood, I seriously turned to astronomy after I finished my undergraduate degree in physics at the University of Wisconsin (1960).  Advanced degrees in astronomy from the University of Michigan were completed in 1966, with two intervening years spent at the Sproul Observatory studying parallaxes, proper motions, and binary-star orbits.  I was fortunate in finding a faculty position at the University of Western Ontario (1966-present).  There, with astronomers Bill and Amelia Wehlau and Jim Moorhead, we built a new astronomy curriculum and a new research observatory.  The Elginfield Observatory, as it came to be known, and its coudé spectrograph were pivotal in my research and in gaining background for the book.  After many years of teaching, observing, and publishing results from the Elginfield Observatory and elsewhere, the appeal of the profession has only grown.  Read my book 'Photospheres' and savor a taste of the stars.

Good News!  The 4th edition of 'Photospheres' (<-- click to see more) has now been published, and the figures in the electronic version are in full color.