I study the dynamics of galaxies, the motions of stars and gas,in order to learn more about the formation and evolution of galaxies. My specialty has been barred galaxies, where the gas flow in particular is more complex. The tools I use for this are stellar dynamical (orbit and N-body simulations) as well as hydro dynamical. For years I have been involved in building (and what we now call) open source software to study these problems, in the form of packages such as NEMO, StarLab and Athena. A more recent development is the question how these theoretical data can be added to the Virtual Observatory to aid both observational and theoretical astronomers in analyzing and understanding their data.

I have also been involved in building and maintaining analysis software for observational data, in the form of MIRIAD and AIPS++/CASA. In particular, MIRIAD is the current package we use for CARMA data. MIRIAD is also used for a number of radio telescopes around the world (most notably the SMA, WSRT, and ATNF).

ADS Listing for past 5 years