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Prof. Robert A Simcoe
Francis L Friedman Professor of Physics
Director, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (MKI)
Primary DLC
Department of Physics
MIT Room:
37-241
(617) 324-0542
simcoe@space.mit.edu
https://physics-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/faculty/robert-simcoe/
Assistant
Debbie Meinbresse
(617) 253-1456
meinbres@mit.edu
Areas of Interest and Expertise
Astrophysics
Optical Cosmology
Research Summary
Rob Simcoe maintains strong interests in the development of optical/infrared instrumentation for ground-based astronomy, and the observation of galaxies and intergalactic matter at the epoch when the universe was ~5-10% of its present age.
In particular, he has worked to improve characterizations of the spatial distribution of elements heavier than Hydrogen and Helium at early times. In the wake of the Big Bang, the universe is thought to have been primarily composed of H and He, with nearly all large scale production of heavier elements taking place through nuclear fusion in the cores of the first stars. When these stars ended their lifetimes, they exploded as supernovae and polluted intergalactic space with newly formed chemicals.
By studying the strength and spatial variation of intergalactic oxygen and carbon at early epochs, Simcoe has been working toward an understanding of when and where the first stars in the universe were formed. Further work in correlating the locations of early galaxies with heavy elements in the nearby intergalactic medium is also leading to some of the the first direct physical characterizations of the cycle of galaxy formation, supernova feedback, and chemical enrichment during the peak era of star formation over cosmic time.
Infrared astronomical spectroscopy is an essential tool for studying these earliest epochs and Simcoe has been active in developing new instrumentation toward this end. In 2010 his group commissioned FIRE, a fully cryogenic infrared spectrometer on the 6.5 meter Magellan telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. His group in the Optical/IR lab of the MIT-Kavli Institute continues to work on development of IR instrumentation for specialized applications such as exoplanet transit photometry.
Recent Work
Projects
May 2, 2013
Department of Physics
First Stars/Reionization, Cosmic Structure
Principal Investigator
Robert Simcoe
May 1, 2013
Department of Physics
Magellan Telescopes Consortium
Principal Investigator
Robert Simcoe
June 25, 2008
Department of Physics
FiRE: Folded-Port InfraRed Echellette for the Magellan Telescopes
Principal Investigator
Robert Simcoe
Related Faculty
Prof. Miklos Porkolab
Professor of Physics
Prof. Anna L Frebel
Professor of Physics
Prof. Joseph A Formaggio
Professor of Physics