Astronomy Colloquium (2018 Spring Semester)

* Date.         Feb. 28(Wednesday)

* Speaker.   Andre-Nicolas Chene (GEMINI Staff members)

* Title.         The Journey of a Gemini Observer

* Abstract 

I have been a Gemini user for now more than 10 years. I have used most of its instruments, both in the North and the South, in the optical and the near infrared, with and without adaptative optic correction. Prior to that, I would get all my data from 1m to 4m telescopes. But I have learned how to use a 8m telescope in queue mode to expand my possibilities.

My principal research interests are everything related to massive stars; their birth environnement, their evolution, their fundamental parameters (mass, magnetic fields) and their winds. I will therefore present “short-stories” about the work I have done using Gemini on Wolf-Rayet stars wind variability, the calibration of upper-part of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, and the characterization of Galactic massive open clusters.

Also, I will present how my knowledge of Gemini brought me into various collaborations working on colliding galaxies, globular clusters, massive stellar black holes, galactic archeology, and even exo-planets.