Faculty Directory
| Department Chair: Jonathan Fortney | Department Manager: Alyssa Danielli |
| Vice Chair: Brant Robertson | Graduate Advisor: Brandon Day |
| Graduate Program Director: Andrew Skemer | Department Assistant: Kali Lucas |
| Undergraduate Program Director: Connie Rockosi | Astronomy Program Coordinator: Lani Skelton |
- Title
- Professor
- Division Physical & Biological Sciences Division
- Department
- Astronomy & Astrophysics Department
- Phone 831-459-2732
- Website
- Office Location
- ISB 337
- Mail Stop UCO / Lick Observatory
- Faculty Areas of Expertise Astronomy, Astrophysics
Research Interests
Theory of planetary formation and evolution is a natural area for me to focus my research activities for several reasons. First, we are currently in the midst of a revolution in the search for extra solar planets. In little over a decade, over 200 extra solar planets have been discovered. These valuable data drive theorists like myself to explore new ideas to account for the ubiquity of planets and diversity of planetary systems. My goal is to construct a unified theory which can explain the statistical properties of planetary systems.
Biography, Education and Training
PhD, Cambridge 1976
Postdoc, Cambridge & Harvard 1979-1979
Assistant Professor, UCSC, 1979-1982
Associate Professor, UCSC, 1982-1985
Full Professor, UCSC, 1985-Present
Guggenheim Fellow, Otto Schmidt Medal, von Humboldt Fellow
Sackler Fellow, Member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Director, Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics
