Erik J. Tollerud
I was a Hubble Fellow at the Department of Astronomy at Yale University. I have since moved to the Space Telescope Science Institute. See my new web site there for up-to-date information.
ADS Publications arXiv PublicationsI was a Hubble Fellow at the Department of Astronomy at Yale University. I have since moved to the Space Telescope Science Institute. See my new web site there for up-to-date information.
ADS Publications arXiv PublicationsI observe dwarf galaxies of the Local Group and Local Volume to try to understand their properties and constrain galaxy formation models. My observations include resolved star optical spectroscopy, deep imaging, and radio searches for neutral hydrogen (HI).
I compare the faintest known galaxies to cosmological models like ΛCDM. Because these galaxies are so faint, they are dark matter-dominated, and provide some of the best windows into the nature of dark matter.
Image Credit: Aquarius ProjectI use the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and value-added catalogs like the VAGC and NASA-Sloan Atlas to place Local Group galaxies in a cosmological context. I also use them to search for new dwarf galaxies.
Image Credit: SDSSAstropy is a community astronomy library for astronomy. I am on the coordinating committee and a major developer.
An open-source project with the functionality of SOFA but with modern distribution and fully FOSS-compatible licensing.
A python package for fitting data to models, with a GUI interface based on Enthought Traits and Chaco.
A python package I wrote for various research needs. It's functionality is being subsumed into astropy, but it will remain until all of it is in astropy.
Hubble Fellow, 2012-present
Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
Graduate Student Researcher, 2007-2012
University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
James Bullock, Elizabeth Barton
Honors Research Thesis, 2005-2006
University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, CA, USA
James Bernhard
NASA Space Grant Intern, Summer 2005
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA
Michael Hecht
microEP REU, Summer 2004
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AK, USA
John Shultz
University of California, Irvine Irvine, CA, USA
Ph.D., Physics and Astronomy, June 2012
Advisor: James Bullock
Dissertation: "Local Group Dwarf Galaxies in the LCDM Cosmology: Theory Meets Observations"
University of California, Irvine Irvine, CA, USA
M.S., Physics and Astronomy, June 2008
University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA, USA
B.S., Physics, Math, May 2006
[1] | visualization later featured in news media incl. MSNBC, AFP, Science Daily, nature.com |
[2] | http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v456/n7220/full/456284f.html |
Co-supervisor/mentor
Graduate Students: Luis Vargas, Ana Bonaca, Lucas Viani (Yale), John Phillips (UC Irvine). Undergraduate students: Kareem El-Badry and Emily Sandford (Yale).
Speaker: Astro on Tap, New Haven
Public talks at BAR Restauraunt and Nightclub in New Haven, CT.
COSMOS Teaching Assistant, 2007-2011
Managed project groups and gave lectures to science-oriented summer camp for California high school students.
Public Lectures, UC Irvine Observatory, 2008-2012
UC Irvine Observatory Outreach Coordinator, 2006-2008
Planned and executed nearly 100 outreach visits for K-12 schools, reaching roughly 3000 students.
Teaching Assistant, UC Irvine, Intro to Astronomy, 2008
Teaching Assistant, UC Irvine, Physics of Music, 2007
Teaching Assistant, UC Irvine, Intro to Astronomy, 2007
Teaching Assistant, UC Irvine, Astronomy Lab, 2007
Lab Assistant, Univ. of Puget Sound, University Physics, 2006
Lab Assistant, Univ. of Puget Sound, Waves & Optics, 2005
Lab Assistant, Univ. of Puget Sound, College Physics, 2005
Journal Article Referee
Astrophysical Journal, Astrophysical Journal Letters, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Astropy Coordinating Committee, 2011-present
Member of 3-person planning board for project to create Python programming language library for astronomy.
Panelist, Hubble Space Telescope Time Allocation Committee, 2014
Reviewed and voted on proposed small/medium GO time proposals for use of HST.
NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship Program Reviewer, 2014
Reviewed and graded fellowship applications for graduate fellowship.
Yale Astronomy Colloquium Organizer, 2012-2014
Invited colloquium speakers, organize schedule, introduce colloquium speakers.
Yale Galaxy Lunch Organizer, 2013-present
Organize weekly lunch talk/journal club section for faculty, postdocs, and grad students with extragalactic interests.
Founder, Yale Organized Discussion of Astronomy, 2012-present
Created weekly meeting or faculty, postdocs, and grad students to discuss recent results across Yale's subfields.
Yale Astronomy Colloquium Organizer, 2012-2014
Organize colloquium speaker's schedule, introduce seminar speakers before their talks.
Associated Graduate Students of UCI Chief of Staff, 2011
Representative on administrative committees, liaison to President.
UCI Graduate Council Representative, 2010-2012
Representative to UC Irvine Academic Senate committee on graduate student curriculum development.
Organizer for UC Irvine "READ" journal club, 2009-2012
Organized bi-weekly discussions of recent papers on ArXiv/astro-ph between graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty.
Co-Organizer, Astronomy Graduate Seminar, 2009-2010
Organized weekly talks by graduate students and postdocs.
Founding Chair, UCI Physics Graduate Caucus, 2007-2010
Created graduate student organization to provide peer advising and graduate student voice in departmental affairs.