AMDG
Notice To Users
Gerard Williger
COVID-19 RESOURCES
DONATE TO HELP FUND
ASTRONOMY RESEARCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE
(and learn why research is key to the mission of the
University) - updated 2018.08.31
I am a professor in the Dept. of Physics &
Astronomy at
the University of Louisville
.
E-mail: gmwill06 (-at-) louisville dot edu
NB: do NOT e-mail to my departmental account
physics.louisville.edu as it is retired and may not forward.
Office: Natural Science Bldg #206, tel. 502/852-0821, fax
502/852-0742.
Here are driving
directions and a map of main
campus
(on which we are in Bldg 34).
I am also a Visiting Fellow at the Jeremiah Horrocks Institute
for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at U. Central Lancashire,
Preston, England,
a member of the
Institute for Computational and
Astrophysical Sciences at the
Catholic University of America, the Jeremy Horrocks and worked
during 2009-12 as a Prof. des Universites at
the Obs. de la Côte d'Azur, at Lab. Lagrange, Univ. de Nice, France.
I am a former visitor (2005-09) at the Center for Astrophysics
& Space Science at JHU; here is a wonderful
interview
with my supervisor at JHU, H. Warren Moos.
I am a sometime visitor at Konkoly Observatory,
Budapest after a Fulbright Fellowship there 2018-19
I frequently help with the annual Bullitt
Lecture
in Astronomy. I also sometimes am on the committee which
presents the annual
Bullitt
Scholarships and the Best Paper in Astronomy Award.
I was friends with former U. Louisville faculty member Andrew
Chamblin, who has a memorial page here.
I support lectures in his memory, both in Louisville and at other
places including Cambridge and U. Kentucky, linked here.
GREAT NORTH AMERICAN
ECLIPSE OF 2024 RESOURCES FOR
THE UNIV. OF LOUISVILLE AND COMMONWEALTH OF
KENTUCKY
CLICK HERE FOR RESOURCES/LINKS
Legacy page of GREAT AMERICAN ECLIPSE OF
2017
CLICK HERE
I spoke on the Great American
Eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017 at Against
the Grain on 17 May 2017 for "Louisville
Underground Science".
It followed another 25 minute lecture by my student, Nicholas
Duong, on Near-Earth Asteroids.
The two 25 minute audios, slides and animations are here.
I spoke on the formation of stars in distant galaxies at Against
the Grain on 15 Oct 2014 for "Louisville
Underground Science".
The 43 minute audio, slides and animations are here.
I also help to organize the Astronomy on Tap (a.k.a. PALS),
started in Nov 2015. Our talks are archived
here
(slides and audio files).
Here is my interview on NPR's
Science Friday, Jan. 18, 2013 on the colossal Large Quasar
Group
found by Roger Clowes and collaborators.
One of several articles about the Giant Arc (Lopez, Clowes &
Williger, 2022, MNRAS, 516, 1557,
from the BBC,
3 Mar 2023
The Kentucky Area Astronomical Society (KAAS) hosts
AAS Regional meetings:
Shawnee St., Portsmouth OH + hybrid, Mar. 15-16, 2024 website
U Kentucky-Lexington + hybrid, Apr. 14-15, 2023 website
Austin Peay + hybrid, Apr. 1-2, 2022 website
Online, Apr. 16-17, 2021 website
Louisville, Mar. 7, 2020 website
Morehead St., Apr. 13, 2019 website
Northern Ky U. Apr. 7, 2018 website
Murray St. U. Apr. 8, 2017 website
Eastern Ky U. Apr 9, 2016 website.
U. Kentucky May 3, 2014 website.
Main Interests:
- Large Scale
Structure
- Quasar Absorption
Lines
- HeII
Gunn-Peterson Effect
- D/H in the
interstellar medium
- Proto-planetary
Disks
- Data Mining (SDSS
and other ground-based/space-based)
Outside Research Groups:
Louisville
Research Group:
Jim
Lauroesch, currently Assoc Professor (collaborator),
former research scientist
Lutz
Haberzettl, currently Adjunct Professor and Linux
system manager, former post-doc
Jeremy
Hornbeck, graduate student - publications
John Pritchard, graduate student (went to Purdue Aug 2022)
Alexia Lopez, graduate student at U. Central
Lancashire, England, supervised by Roger Clowes
see here
for a 7' video on Alexia Lopez' work, from
BBC4, May 2022
Brady Smith, UL undergrad, working on Jupiter
spatial Doppler imaging with D. Gulledge, C. Shaw,
since July 2022
THESES
COMPLETED UNDER MY SUPERVISION OR CO-SUPERVISION
Former students:
GRADUATE STUDENTS/POST-DOC
Katie
Harris, former PhD U. Central Lancashire (2012),
former post-doc at U. de Nice (2012), then a post-doc
at Virginia Tech, currently in industry, publications
with me
Gabriel Marinello, former PhD U. Central Lancashire
(2015), post-doc at U. de Chile, currently a data
analyst at ALMA
Observatory
Karen
Collins, graduate student
2006-09, wrote MS thesis, did a PhD at UL under J.
Kielkopf, then a post-doc at Vanderbilt, currently a
post-doc at Harvard - publications
Brian Carpenter, graduate
student 2005-07, teacher at Laurel School, Shaker Heights OH
won
inspirational teacher award, from
MIT, 2013
twitter account,
Brian Carpenter [at]physicscarp
UNDERGRADUATES
Brianna Mills,
undergraduate student 2017-18, wrote Bachelor's thesis, won AAS
Chambliss Award at 2018 meeting, currently a PhD student at U.
Virginia
Nicholas
Duong, undergraduate student 2016-17, wrote
Honors thesis, currently a PhD student at UC Santa
Cruz
Jared
Keown, undergraduate
student 2013-14, wrote Honors thesis, currently a
PhD student at U. Victoria, BC, Canada - publications
Katherine Davis, undergraduate student
2008-09, wrote Honors thesis, won NSF
Graduate Fellowship for PhD in physics at
Purdue, was a post-doc at Princeton, now
tenure-track at Emory U.
Wes Miller,
undergraduate
student 2006-07,
won Fulbright to
Konkoly
Observatory,
Budapest
2007,
finished PhD in
physics at U.
Oregon, in 2017 a
Sr. Engineer and
Device Physicist
at HEE Solar,
Dallas TX
publications
If you want me to write a reference for you, I need (1) all
university transcripts (if you graduated in the past 3 years),
(2) your current CV and publications list, (3) the job/graduate
school ad, (4) any essays you need to write, with at least 3 weeks' notice. I request that you
waive the right to see the reference, if I am to write the
best one possible.
A popular
description of some of what I do
FUSE links (password-protected):
D/H
team
page
D/H
target index
postscript
spectral plots for D/H FUSE programs
Links to Professional Astronomers in
Kentucky
Scholarships
for junior/senior year or graduate school
Publications/Conference
proceedings/Press Releases
Portal
to the Universe: International Year of Astronomy 2009
(400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope)
Louisville Astronomers' View of
40th Anniversary of First Manned Lunar Landing: Tim
Dowling & Gerry Williger
Physics/Astronomy
Departments
in ACC/U Louisville Benchmark Institutions
ACC
Academic Consortium (includes fellowship/REU
information)
Physics
departments which have closed (partial list)
Physics and Astronomy
rankings: 2010
NRC (US, ~35 depts.)
and 2011
Guardian (World top 100)
US (31 universities), UK (13), Germany
(8), Australia (5), Japan (5), Canada (4),
France (4), Netherlands (4), Switzerland (4), China
(4), Hong Kong (3), Israel (2),
South Korea (2), Singapore (2), Spain (2), Denmark
(1), Finland (1), Ireland (1), Italy (1),
Russia (1), Sweden (1), Taiwan (1)
By language: English (54 (59 with Hong Kong &
Singapore)), German (11), French (5), Japanese (5),
Dutch (5), Mandarin (5), Cantonese (3), Hebrew (2),
Korean (2), Malay (2),
Spanish (2), Danish (1), Finnish (1), Italian (1),
Russian (1), Swedish (1)
Ten
Reasons Why Caltech is the World's #1 (Research)
University, Times Higher Education (UK), 17 Feb
2014, Phil Baty
Journal/Preprint Links
Astronomy
Humor
Astronomy
on Tap: main
website ; partial list of host
businesses
I am also the
Louisville chapter advisor for Mortar
Board
Useful data
Science
Jokes