Autoridades
DIRECTOR,
Dr. René Méndez
-
René
Méndez
Teléfono:
56 (2) 2 977 1117
E-mail: rmendez[at]das.uchile.cl
Webpage: http://www.das.uchile.cl/~rmendez/
Línea de Investigación:
Estructura Galáctica,
Cinemática y Dinamica
Estelar, Astrometría.
Ph.D., en Astronomía,
1995, Yale University,
EEUU.
Área
de Interes
My research focuses on
the use of state-of-the-art,
high-accuracy, astrometric
techniques on digital
detectors to address various
problems of astrophysical
interest, using also other
complementary tools such
as optical and near-IR
photometry, numerical
(Monte-Carlo type) simulations,
and Galactic structure
models. My specific topics
of interest include:
• Studies of the
solar neighborhood (within
~30 pc of the Sun): How
complete is our census
of the solar vicinity,
especially in the southern
hemisphere? What is the
shape of luminosity function,
especially for low mass
stars? What is the space-density
of nearby low-mass stellar
systems?
• Galactic Structure
and Kinematics: Comparisons
between star-count models
and observations. What
are the global Galactic
structural parameters?
What is the nature of
the Galactic thick-disk?
What is the extent and
shape of the Galactic
Halo? What is the nature
of dark-matter?
• Satellite Galaxies
of the Milky Way: Dynamical
status through their present-day
positions, radial velocity
and proper-motions. The
relationship between star-formation
episodes in these galaxies
and their orbital properties.
The Milky Way Gravitational
potential at great distances
from the Galactic Center
(> 50 000 pc).
• Currently I am
involved in the NPARSEC
program (acronyms for
NTT Parallaxes of Southern
Extremely Cool Objects),
led by Dr. Richard Smart
at the Osservatorio Astronomico
di Torino in Italy, and
which is a major ESO Large
Program that will perform
high precision astrometric
observations on ~100 nights
over the next 3 years
with the near-IR instrument
SOFI at the ESO-La Silla
NTT 3.5m telescope, for
a sample of about 60 L
and T-type nearby brown
dwarfs.(see http://parsec.oato.inaf.it/nparsec.php)
to obtain their trigonometric
parallaxes with an expected
accuracy of 2 milli-arc-seconds,
or less.
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SUBDIRECTORA
Y COORDINADORA DE POSTGRADO,
Dra. Paulina Lira
-
Paulina
Lira
Teléfono:
56 (2) 9771138
E-mail: plira[at]das.uchile.cl
Línea de Investigación:
Galaxias Activas, Galaxias.
Ph.D., en Astronomía,
1999., U. de Edimburgo,
Reino Unido.
Área
de Interes
I
am mostly interested in
AGN, at low and high redshift.
We are trying to understand
the variability properties
of a large sample of AGN
using the QUEST optical
camera and NIR data from
the UltraVista and VIDEO
surveys. Also, we are
following a small sample
of local well known Seyferts
using the SMARTS telecopes
to determine their optical
and NIR light curves.
I'm also interested in
the obscuration properties
of AGN and we are studying
the dusty torus for a
well defined sample of
nearby Seyferts using
IR imaging in the 1-10
um range and with ALMA
in the near future. Finally,
I'm also interested in
the feedback mechanisms
operating in AGN and powerfull
starburst, for which we
are starting a program
trying to determine the
presence of large scale
winds in nearby ULIRGs
and high-redshift galaxies
and in binary Black Holes,
which can be searched
using spectropolarimetric
observations.
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JEFE
DOCENTE,
Dr. Mario Hamuy
-
Mario
Hamuy
Teléfono:56
(2) 9771101
E-mail: mhamuy[at]das.uchile.cl
Webpage: http://www.das.uchile.cl/~mhamuy/
Línea de Investigación:
Supernovas, Cosmología.
Ph.D. en Astronomía, 2001,
U. de Arizona, EEUU.
Área
de Interes
I
am interested in the study
of supernovae. I am the
principal investigator
of the Millennium Center
for Supernova Studies
(MCSS), which includes
5 professors, 4 postdocs,
4 PhD students and more
than 10 undergraduates.
Our activities involve
a nearby supernova search
program (CHASE) using
the PROMPT robotic telescopes
located at Cerro Tololo,
the development of our
own 50 cm robotic telescope,
and photometric and spectroscopic
followup of selected supernovae.
The main goal of the MCSS
is the study of the physics
of supernovae and their
use as distance indicators.
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