Astrophysics with resolved stellar populations

我是一名观测天文学家，主要研究领域是恒星——恒星天文学。我对可以分解成单个恒星的恒星系统很感兴趣。这些恒星包括离我们很近的单个恒星，我们银河系内星团中的恒星以及位于附近星系的恒星。因为我们可以看到这些系统中的单个恒星，所以我们能够比处理未解决的物体（如遥远的星系）更准确地研究系统的详细特性（如它们的年龄）。这些系统的高质量数据可以产生如此令人兴奋的结果，如估计宇宙的年龄（从最古老的恒星的年龄），告诉我们行星的形成（从各种星团中发现的行星），暗物质（从各种系统内的动力学），以及星系的形成（从附近星系外晕的恒星分布）。以上都是我目前正在参与的实验。为了研究这些不同的主题，我观察了范围广泛的物体，包括附近的恒星，开放和球状星团以及我们邻近星系的分解成分。为了完成我的研究目标，我使用了各种各样的望远镜，特别是双直径8米的双子座望远镜，加拿大法国夏威夷望远镜和凯克10米望远镜。此外，我是加拿大最大的哈勃太空望远镜用户。

I am an observational astronomer whose main area of research deals with stars - stellar astronomy. I am interested in stellar systems that can be resolved into individual stars. These comprise individual stars near to us, those in star clusters within our own Galaxy and stars located in nearby galaxies. Because we can see the individual stars in these systems we are able to investigate detailed properties of the systems (such as their ages) much more accurately than if we were dealing with unresolved objects (such as distant galaxies). High quality data on such systems can yield such exciting results as an estimate of the age of the Universe (from the ages of the oldest stars), tell us about planet formation (from the discovery of planets in various clusters), dark matter (from the dynamics within the various systems), and the formation of galaxies (from the distributions of stars in the outer halos of nearby galaxies). All of the above are experiments in which I am currently involved. To investigate these diverse subjects I observe a wide range of objects including nearby stars, open and globular star clusters and the resolved components of our neighbouring galaxies. To accomplish my research goals I use a variety of telescopes particularly the twin 8 metre diameter Gemini Telescopes, the Canada France Hawaii Telescope and the Keck 10 metre Telescope. In addition, I am the largest Canadian user of the Hubble Space Telescope.