Scientific Staff
NOAO scientific staff, location, scientific interests, and functional duties. Personal web sites can be accessed by clicking on the scientist’s name. The NOAO South Staff are listed below, and as a group here.
Phone numbers and email addresses for all employees are available in the NOAO Phone List Search.
| Name | Rank | Scientific Interests | Functional Responsibilities | Location |
| Timothy Abbott (Tim) | Scientist |
Late stages of binary stellar evolution; Optical and IR observing systems: telescopes, instrumentation; operations |
Blanco Telescope Scientist, ACTR chair, DECam team support member | La Serena |
| Helmut Abt | Astronomer Emeritus | Double stars; stellar rotation; stellar characteristics; publication practices in astronomy | Thai 2.4-m telescope (Tucson supervisor), Scientometrics | Tucson |
| Lori Allen | Scientist | Star and planet formation; infrared astronomy and instrumentation | NOAO Associate Director for Kitt Peak National Observatory | Tucson |
| Michael Belton (Mike) | Astronomer Emeritus | Planetary science; comets; asteroids; Jupiter system | Tucson | |
| Robert Blum (Bob) | Astronomer | Galactic Center; massive star birth; clusters; resolved stellar populations in the local volume | NOAO Deputy Director | Tucson |
| Adam S. Bolton | Senior Scientist | Observational cosmology; galaxies and dark matter; gravitational lensing; spectroscopic surveys; data mining, algorithms, and statistics | NOAO Associate Director for the Community Science and Data Center | Tucson |
| César Briceño | Associate Scientist | Star formation, young stars | SOAR Support, SAM support. | La Serena |
| Arjun Dey | Astronomer | Galaxy evolution; high redshift galaxies; large-scale structure | NOAO/KPNO DESI liaison scientist, Keck contact scientist | Tucson |
| Mark Dickinson | Astronomer | Galaxy formation and evolution; high redshift galaxies; active galactic nuclei | U.S. ELT Program Scientist | Tucson |
| Mark Everett | Research Associate | Exoplanets; stellar variability; time domain studies | Kepler Mission Follow-up Program | Tucson |
| Katy Garmany |
Emeritus Scientist |
Massive stars, evolution and formation; astronomical education | Tohono O'odham relations | Tucson |
| Stephen Heathcote (Steve) | Astronomer | Young Stellar Objects, Herbig-Haro outflows | NOAO Associate Director for NOAO South (including Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory) | SOAR/La Serena |
| Kenneth Hinkle (Ken) | Scientist | Circumstellar and interstellar matter; molecular spectroscopy; peculiar stars; instrumentation |
US NGO, Gemini user support (Archive, AO, IR instruments); Instrument scientist (Phoenix)
|
Tucson |
| Richard Joyce (Dick) | Scientist | Late-type stars; mass loss; infrared detector and instrumentation development | Mayall 4-m Telescope scientist, Instrument scientist (WHIRC), NOAO-DESI Scientist, Member WIYN Science Steering Committee (SSC) | Tucson |
| Thomas Kinman (Tom) | Astronomer Emeritus | Galactic structure; galactic halo; horizontal branch stars | Tucson | |
| Tod Lauer | Astronomer | Cosmology; large-scale structure of the Universe; evolution of the Universe; distance scale; structure of galaxies; dense stellar system; black holes in galactic nuclei; stellar populations | WIYN Board Member; Instrument Scientist: MOSAIC; NOAO LSST science working group; NOAO Survey Liaison | Tucson |
| Roger Lynds | Astronomer Emeritus | Star and galaxy formation; products of galaxy interaction in the recent and early Universe | Tucson | |
| Thomas Matheson (Tom) | Associate Astronomer | Supernovae; novae; gamma-ray bursts; cosmology | Gemini user support (GMOS), Gemini archive support, NOAO LSST science working group, SCD/ANTARES | Tucson |
| Joan Najita | Astronomer | Star and planet formation; protoplanetary disks; astrochemistry; astrobiology; debris disks; exoplanets and substellar objects; infrared spectroscopy; wide-field surveys | Chief Scientist; Science Press Officer; e-newsletter Currents editor | Tucson |
| Gautham Narayan | Research Associate | Cosmology: dark energy, and the evolution of the Universe, distance indicators, supernovae, modeling and high-performance computing | Post doctoral researcher | Tucson |
| David Nidever | Associate Scientist | Galaxy formation and evolution; galactic chemical evolution; galactic structure; Magellanic Clouds; stellar populations; large photometric and spectroscopic surveys; software pipelines | Survey Data Scientist | Tucson |
| Robert Nikutta | Associate Scientist | AGN tori & central engine (IR & X-ray & sub-mm), surveys & catalogs (WISE, SDSS), Bayesian & advanced statistics, variability of AGN, IR interferometry, dust radiative transfer in clumpy media, software development, modeling & SED fitting, big data, HPC in astronomy, visualization | Survey Data Scientist | Tucson |
| Dara Norman | Associate Scientist | Gravitational lensing; large scale structure; quasars | NOAO Diversity Co-Advocate, Gemini user support (GMOS) (also assigned NDO, see above) | Tucson |
| Knut Olsen | Associate Astronomer | Stellar populations; galaxy formation and evolution; interaction of stars with the ISM | System Community Development Head, NOAO LSST science working group | Tucson |
| Sean Points | Scientist | Interstellar Medium (ISM); Magellanic Clouds; supernova remnants, evolved stars; instrumentation | Instrument Scientist: SOI, Goodman Spectrograph, COSMOS, and ARCoIRIS; Blanco Scheduler | La Serena |
| Stephen Pompea (Steve) | Observatory Scientist | Inquiry- and research-based science education; astronomical instrumentation | EPO Head, Manager Of Science Education, Public Information Officer | Tucson |
| Ronald Probst (Ron) | Scientist | Star-forming regions; low-mass stars; infrared imaging instrumentation |
NOAO DESI System Scientist; Mayall 4-m improvements and operations
|
Tucson |
| Jayadev Rajagopal | Associate Scientist | Circumstellar dust, debris disks; high angular resolution techniques in optical/infrared; atmospheric turbulence |
WIYN Telescope Scientist, Gemini User Support (NICI) |
Tucson |
| Amy Reines | Research Associate | Massive black holes in dwarf galaxies; evolution of black holes and galaxies; AGNs; extragalactic star formation | Hubble Fellow | Tucson |
| Stephen Ridgway (Steve) |
Astronomer |
Variability, transients and temporal sky surveys | Data Lab Time Domain Scientist, Optical Interferometry Community Liaison, Co-Diversity Advocate | Tucson |
| Susan Ridgway | Associate Scientist | Quasar host galaxies | Gemini user support (NIRI, GMOS) | Tucson |
| Abhijit Saha (Abi) | Astronomer | Variable stars; stellar populations; cosmological distance scale; imaging and photometry | Time domain scientist, ANTARES project; Chair, Promotions and Tenure Committee; WIYN Board member; member Gemini Science & Technology Advisory Committee. | Tucson |
| David Silva (Dave) | Senior Scientist | Extragalactic stellar populations; elliptical galaxies | NOAO Director | Tucson |
| Malcolm Smith | Astronomer | Global environmental impact of light pollution; the early Universe; quasars/active galactic nuclei | Site protection, EPO | La Serena |
| R. Christopher Smith (Chris) | Astronomer | Supernovae; optical transients; supernova remnants; the interstellar medium | DECam support, AURA Head of Mission in Chile | La Serena |
| Verne Smith | Astronomer | High-resolution spectroscopy; cosmochemistry; nuclear astrophysics; chemical evolution; stellar populations; stellar atmospheres; stellar evolution |
Chair of the NOAO Telescope Allocation Committee (TAC); Program Head of the US National Gemini Office (NGO); President of the WIYN Observatory Board of Directors
|
Tucson |
| Monika Soraisam | Research Associate | Novae, variable stars, Type Ia supernova progenitors, stellar population of M31 | Postdoctoral researcher | Tucson |
| David Sprayberry | Senior Scientist | Instrumentation and observing techniques; galaxy formation and evolution; statistical analysis of galaxy populations, especially dwarf and low surface brightness galaxies | Manager of NN-ETS; Project Manager for NOAO-DESI | Tucson |
| Letizia Stanghellini | Astronomer | Stellar structure and evolution; Galactic and extragalactic planetary | Head, US National Gemini Office | Tucson |
| Stephen Strom (Steve) | Astronomer Emeritus | Formation and evolution of planetary systems; origin of stellar angular moment | Tucson | |
| Andrei Tokovinin | Astronomer | Statistics and formation of binary and multiple stars; adaptive optics; site testing | Instrument scientist(1.5-m echelle), project scientist (SOAR Adaptive Optics Module) | La Serena |
| Francisco Valdes (Frank) | Scientist | Cosmology; gravitational lensing; stellar spectroscopy; astronomical software |
Data pipelines (ODI, DECam-CP,+), IRAF application development
|
Tucson |
| Nicole van der Bliek | Scientist | Instrumentation; young stars and cool stars | NOAO South Deputy Director | La Serena |
| Katherina Vivas | Assistant Astronomer |
Stellar populationss, RRL variable stars, galactic structure |
CTIO Support Astronomer, DECam support team member | La Serena |
| Alistair Walker | Astronomer | Stellar populations; the Magellanic Clouds; the distance scale; astronomical instrumentation and detectors | DECam Instrument Scientist, Leader of Optical Imagers Support Team, Member of the NOAO Promotion and Tenure Committee, Member of CTIO Advisory Committee on Technical Resources (ACTR), LSST Operations Planning | La Serena |
| Constance Walker (Connie) | Scientist | Inquiry- and research-based science education; submillimeter-wave spectroscopy of star formation in galaxies at different epochs | Dark skies awareness, informal science programs | Tucson |
| Benjamin A. Weaver | Associate Scientist | Galaxy properties, large-scale structure, astronomical "big data", Python in astronomy. | Data management, transfer and archiving for Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). Development of user interfaces, visualization and utilities for spectroscopic data. | Tucson |
| Sidney Wolff | Astronomer Emeritus | Star formation; stellar rotation | President, LSST Corporation | Tucson |
| Alfredo Zenteno | Research Associate | Observational Cosmology | DECam/Blanco Support | La Serena |
Last updated or reviewed December 26, 2018.
NOAO is the national center for ground-based nighttime astronomy in the United States and is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA). under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. If you would like information about solar astronomy, visit the National Solar Observatory. If you would like information about radio astronomy, visit the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.