...you have reached the homepage of
Chris Laws
phone 221-7949
email laws@astro.washington.edu
office PAB349
...but my "in office" schedule is very chaotic. contact me to set up an appointment -- i can be available most days of the week! )
My primary work these days (besides raising my absolutely awesome son) centers around operating and developing programs for the Manastash Ridge Observatory. The main MRO program I'm working on at the moment involves the use of RR Lyrae variables to map tidal streams in the halo of the Milky Way; this project has been very successful, particularly for the students who get to show off the results of their hard work! I also have a fetish for extrasolar planetary system science and am a member of the Multi-Object APO Radial Velocity Survey (MARVELS) team, which aims to perform a search of 1 million nearby main sequence stars for planetary companions. Along similar lines, I've also recently become involved in high-speed photometric studies of transiting extra-solar planets, hoping to find evidence of other planets in those systems through precision timing of eclipse events (with Drs. Andrew Becker and Eric Agol).
It's hard to overstate how much I enjoy teaching, and thankfully the UW Astronomy Department offers me many chances to lead a variety of classes; follow the link to get a complete listing of the classes I'm involved with, and connections (where applicable) to homepages for each of those courses.
There is indeed more to me than astronomy -- go on through the link if you dare, and you'll find photos, music and other dementia from the the fantastic good time that is my life!
