Sandra Faber

Professor, Astronomy & Astrophysics

My research is focussed on using the lookback power of large telescopes to study the formation and evolution of galaxies. With colleagues Koo and Guhathakurta at UCSC and Davis at UCB, we just completed the DEEP2 survey of 50,000 distant galaxies using the DEIMOS spectrograph at Keck 2, for which I was the PI. In the Extended Groth Strip, DEEP2 spectra have been augmented by a wealth of multi-wavelength data from the Chandra, Spitzer, and GALEX telescopes to create AEGIS, the largest deeply imaged panchromatic region on the sky. DEEP2/AEGIS data are being used to count galaxies, study their morphologies (see image above), measure their star-formation rates, and study their dynamics and metallicities. The redshift focus thus far is z = 0.2-1.4, where we have detected mature Hubble types forming. Future work will focus farther back in time to z = 2. Our incredibly rich database provides unique material for studying every aspect of galaxy evolution from mass assembly, to star-formation, to morphological transformation, to AGNs and their effects.

Academic Bio
BA, Swarthmore College, 1966
PhD, Harvard University, 1972

(click image to enlarge)