Hugh Couchman

Last updated

Hugh Couchman is a Canadian astronomer and professor at McMaster University. He is a computational astrophysicist who studies the growth of structure in the universe via gravitational N-body simulations.

Contents

Early life and education

Couchman received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Cambridge University. In his final year as an undergraduate, he took a course in astronomy taught by Martin Reese, which sparked his interest in cosmology. [1] In 1986, he completed his Ph.D. from the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge. [2]

Career

After finishing his PhD, Couchman moved to Canada to begin a postdoctoral fellowship at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics. He spent some time as an assistant professor in the department of Astronomy at the University of Toronto, before beginning a position at the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Western Ontario in 1991.

In 1999, he moved to the department of physics and astronomy at McMaster University. There he helped found SHARCNET, a consortium of universities in South Western Ontario that have joined high performance computers together by optical fiber. He is also a member of the Virgo Consortium for Cosmological Supercomputer Simulations, an international collaboration which performs state-of-the-art cosmological simulations of the large scale structure of the Universe. [1]

Awards and recognition

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

The study of galaxy formation and evolution is concerned with the processes that formed a heterogeneous universe from a homogeneous beginning, the formation of the first galaxies, the way galaxies change over time, and the processes that have generated the variety of structures observed in nearby galaxies. Galaxy formation is hypothesized to occur from structure formation theories, as a result of tiny quantum fluctuations in the aftermath of the Big Bang. The simplest model in general agreement with observed phenomena is the Lambda-CDM model—that is, that clustering and merging allows galaxies to accumulate mass, determining both their shape and structure. Hydrodynamics simulation, which simulates both baryons and dark matter, is widely used to study galaxy formation and evolution.

The Sunyaev–Zeldovich effect is the spectral distortion of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) through inverse Compton scattering by high-energy electrons in galaxy clusters, in which the low-energy CMB photons receive an average energy boost during collision with the high-energy cluster electrons. Observed distortions of the cosmic microwave background spectrum are used to detect the disturbance of density in the universe. Using the Sunyaev–Zeldovich effect, dense clusters of galaxies have been observed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dark matter halo</span> Theoretical cosmological structure

In modern models of physical cosmology, a dark matter halo is a basic unit of cosmological structure. It is a hypothetical region that has decoupled from cosmic expansion and contains gravitationally bound matter. A single dark matter halo may contain multiple virialized clumps of dark matter bound together by gravity, known as subhalos. Modern cosmological models, such as ΛCDM, propose that dark matter halos and subhalos may contain galaxies. The dark matter halo of a galaxy envelops the galactic disc and extends well beyond the edge of the visible galaxy. Thought to consist of dark matter, halos have not been observed directly. Their existence is inferred through observations of their effects on the motions of stars and gas in galaxies and gravitational lensing. Dark matter halos play a key role in current models of galaxy formation and evolution. Theories that attempt to explain the nature of dark matter halos with varying degrees of success include cold dark matter (CDM), warm dark matter, and massive compact halo objects (MACHOs).

Ronald Kantowski is a theoretical cosmologist, well known in the field of general relativity as the author, together with Rainer K. Sachs, of the Kantowski–Sachs dust solutions to the Einstein field equation. These are a widely used family of inhomogeneous cosmological models.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zeta Tucanae</span> Star in the constellation Tucana

Zeta Tucanae, Latinized from ζ Tucanae, is a star in the constellation Tucana. It is a spectral class F9.5 main sequence star with an apparent magnitude of +4.23. Despite having a slightly lower mass, this star is more luminous than the Sun. Based upon parallax measurements by the Hipparcos spacecraft, it is approximately 28.0 light years from Earth. This is one of the least variable stars observed during the Hipparcos mission.

The Las Campanas Redshift Survey is considered the first attempt to map a large area of the universe out to a redshift of z = 0.2. It was begun in 1991 using the Las Campanas telescope in Chile to catalog 26418 separate galaxies. It is considered one of the first surveys to document the so-called "end of greatness" where the Cosmological Principle of isotropy could be seen. Superclusters and voids are prominent features in the survey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bullet Cluster</span> Two colliding clusters of galaxies in constellation Carina

The Bullet Cluster consists of two colliding clusters of galaxies. Strictly speaking, the name Bullet Cluster refers to the smaller subcluster, moving away from the larger one. It is at a comoving radial distance of 1.141 Gpc.

Paul Boltwood was a Canadian amateur astronomer. He was engaged in developing hardware and software for deep sky imaging and in research of brightness variations in active galactic nuclei. He was also acknowledged for his studies of near-nucleus activity in Comet Hyakutake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Merritt</span>

David Roy Merritt is an American astrophysicist.

Stacy McGaugh is an American astronomer and professor in the Department of Astronomy at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. His fields of specialty include low surface brightness galaxies, galaxy formation and evolution, tests of dark matter and alternative hypotheses, and measurements of cosmological parameters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uroš Seljak</span> Slovenian cosmologist

Uroš Seljak is a Slovenian cosmologist and a professor of astronomy and physics at University of California, Berkeley. He is particularly well-known for his research in cosmology and approximate Bayesian statistical methods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Lilly</span>

Simon John Lilly FRS is a professor in the Department of Physics at ETH Zürich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georges Meylan</span> Swiss astronomer

Georges Meylan is a Swiss astronomer, born on July 31, 1950, in Lausanne, Switzerland. He was the director of the Laboratory of Astrophysics of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, and now a professor emeritus of astrophysics and cosmology at EPFL. He is still active in both research and teaching.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 4302</span> Galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices

NGC 4302 is an edge-on spiral galaxy located about 55 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. It was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on April 8, 1784 and is a member of the Virgo Cluster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramesh Narayan (astrophysicist)</span> Indian-American theoretical astrophysicist

Ramesh Narayan is an Indian-American theoretical astrophysicist, currently the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences in the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University. Full member of the National Academy of Sciences, Ramesh Narayan is widely known for his contributions on the theory of black hole accretion processes. Recently he is involved in the Event Horizon Telescope project, which led in 2019 to the first image of the event horizon of a black hole.

Barbara Sue Ryden is an American astrophysicist who is a Professor of Astronomy at Ohio State University. Her research considers the formation, shape and structure of galaxies. She was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oliver Zahn</span> German-American Scientist and Entrepreneur

Oliver Zahn is US/German theoretical astrophysicist, data scientist, and entrepreneur, best known for developing algorithms for astrophysical data analysis and widely cited discoveries of phenomena in the history of the Universe. He is also known for his more recent work as founder and CEO of Climax Foods, a California-based biotechnology company modeling dairy and other animal products directly from plant ingredients. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Zahn directed UC Berkeley's Center for Cosmological Physics alongside George Smoot and Saul Perlmutter and was Head of Data Science at Google

Joel Edward Tohline is an American astrophysicist, specializing in computer simulation of complex fluid flows in astrophysical systems.

References

  1. 1 2 "Star man of Hamilton". IT World Canada. Retrieved 2018-11-28.
  2. hayes. "Hugh Couchman". physwww.mcmaster.ca. Retrieved 2018-11-28.