PLEASE VIEW THE DEPARTMENT WEBPAGE FOR Ph. D. APPLICATION PROCEDURES.

The department offers a program leading to the Doctor of Philosophy degree with a major in astronomy. Specializations are available within the department in theoretical or observational astrophysics and in astronomical instrumentation. In... Show Full Description

PLEASE VIEW THE DEPARTMENT WEBPAGE FOR Ph. D. APPLICATION PROCEDURES.

The department offers a program leading to the Doctor of Philosophy degree with a major in astronomy. Specializations are available within the department in theoretical or observational astrophysics and in astronomical instrumentation. In addition, the Department of Planetary Sciences offers a concentration in solar system astronomy, and the College of Optical Sciences offers advanced degrees and research in its own field of specialization. For further information see Optical Sciences and Planetary Sciences elsewhere in this Catalog. The graduate program emphasizes doctoral studies, but admission as a Master's degree candidate may be granted under special circumstances. Applicants are required to submit scores from the Graduate Record Examination (General and Advanced Test in Physics). All applications must be supported by letters of recommendation. Undergraduate majors in physics, mathematics, or astronomy are preferred, but exceptions may be made for applicants with other majors in special circumstances.

For the Master of Science degree, a written document, but not a formal thesis, is required. A final written or oral examination is required. Successful completion of the eight "core" graduate courses (515, 518, 522, 535, 540, 541, 545 and 582), three graduate physics courses, and two elective graduate science courses is necessary for completing the Ph.D. program. Students may substitute equivalent graduate courses from other institutions. Doctoral students from other departments who elect to minor in astronomy must complete 12 acceptable graduate units in astronomy.

The facilities of the Steward Observatory, which is associated with the Department of Astronomy, are available for student research. The 90-inch and 36-inch reflecting telescopes are located at the Kitt Peak Observing Station, 48 miles southwest of Tucson and within the grounds of the Kitt Peak National Observatory. A dormitory and office building provide facilities for overnight and extended observing periods. The Steward Observatory, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, has upgraded the Multiple Mirror Telescope to a single 6.5 meter diameter primary mirror. In collaboration with the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the Observatory has finished and put in operation two 6.5 meter telescopes located in Chile. Together with several other partners, the Observatory is building the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) on Mt. Graham, Arizona. This telescope will consist of two 8.4 meter diameter mirrors on a common mount, with the light gathering power of a single 11.8 meter telescope. The LBT will be the largest telescope on a single mount in the world. All telescopes have a wide range of modern photometric and spectroscopic equipment, as well as TV acquisition and guidance systems and provision for computer-controlled telescope operation and data acquisition. The Observatory has in operation on Mt. Graham a 10-meter telescope for work at mm and sub-mm wavelengths in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany. The Observatory is involved in a wide range of instrumentation projects for current and future space missions. Campus buildings provide lecture rooms, research laboratories, staff and student offices, and technical facilities. Instrumental equipment at the observing stations located in the Catalina Mountains includes a 61-inch reflecting telescope used for a variety of investigations, including high-resolution photography of the moon and planets; a 60-inch reflector and a 40-inch reflector both used principally for photoelectric photometry, including investigations in the infrared; an 18-inch Schmidt telescope for wide-field photometry; and several smaller instruments. A 21-inch telescope for planetary photography is located on Tumamoc Hill in Tucson. Staff members of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory also may participate in supervision of doctoral dissertations. Research in theoretical astrophysics is supported by an interdisciplinary program that involves the Physics, Astronomy, and Planetary Sciences departments. Research in computational astrophysics benefits from the massively parallel supercomputer at the Center for Computing and Information Technology, an Origin 2000 with 104 CPUs and 48 Gbyte of core Memory. The principal areas of research at the Steward Observatory include galactic and extragalactic investigations, both observational and theoretical; mm wave and sub-mm wave astronomy; infrared astrophysics; spectrographic and photometric research on single and multiple stars; astronomical instrumentation, theoretical investigations of stellar atmospheres and interiors, the interstellar medium, star formation, galaxy formation and evolution, the large scale structure of the Universe and cosmology. Joint colloquia are held with the Kitt Peak National Observatory. The Theoretical Astrophysics Program hosts a biweekly theory colloquium. The Steward Observatory building houses the research and technical staffs, the computer facilities, the MMTO and SMTO staffs and the Tucson offices of the Vatican Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.