Chris Mihos
Department of
Astronomy
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, OH 44106
email: mihos [at] case.edu
phone: 216-368-3729
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Professional Information
Education
PhD in Astronomy, University of Michigan, 1992
BS in Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, 1987
Professional Employment
Case Western Reserve University, 1998-
Professor of Astronomy, CWRU, 2006-
Chair of Astronomy and Director of the Warner and Swasey Observatory,
2009-2015
Associate Professor of Astronomy, 2001-2006
Assistant Professor of Astronomy, 1998-2001
Johns Hopkins University, 1995-1997
Hubble Fellow
University of California, Santa Cruz, 1992-1995
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Research
Interests
My research interests include
galaxy formation and evolution, galaxy clusters, galactic dynamics, and
observational and computational astronomy. I use observational data
from ground- and space-based telescopes combined with start-of-the-art
computer modeling to study the evolution of galaxies and galaxy
clusters.
I have been using CWRU's wide-field Burrell Schmidt telescope to survey
the nearby Virgo cluster of galaxies for the ghostly intracluster light
that traces the history of galaxy collisions inside the cluster. I am a
member of the Next Generation Virgo
Cluster Survey team, an international project studying the
structure and evolution of galaxies within Virgo. Other observational
projects of mine include deep multi-wavelength studies of the faint
outskirts of nearby galaxies to probe their assembly history, star
forming properties, and stellar populations.
I have also developed computer simulations to study the evolution of
colliding galaxies, as well as galaxies orbiting within massive galaxy
clusters. These simulations have shown how colliding spiral galaxies
can merge to trigger starbursts and quasar activity and transform
spirals into elliptical galaxies. Other simulations have shown how the
intracluster stars found strewn throughout galaxy clusters have been
torn out of their parent galaxies by gravitational encounters between
cluster galaxies, and how the kinematics of these stars can be used as
signatures of past encounters.
Many CWRU Astronomy students, including both undergraduates and
graduate students, have been involved in these projects, taking and
analyzing data from CWRU's Burrell Schmidt telescope in southwest
Arizona, modeling the evolution of galaxies in clusters, and studying
the kinematics of colliding galaxies.
Research Publications
Courses Taught
Here are links to various courses I've taught at CWRU. Course
websites only get updated when the course is actually being taught, so
course materials for older courses may be significantly out of date.
Buyer beware....