My research interests include the evolution of galaxies as determined through stellar populations and X-ray source populations analysis. I did my undergraduate work in physics at Middlebury College with Professor Frank Winkler . I received my Ph. D. from the University of Washington in 2002, working with Paul Hodge. Some highlights from that era are here..
Currently, I am playing a leading role in the implementation of the ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury (ANGST). This project is going to measure the star formation history of nearly all known galaxies outside the Local Group but nearby enough to measure resolved stellar photometry with HST (~4 Mpc). We have constructed a sophisticated data reduction pipeline to measure stellar photometry from Hubble Space Telescope images. Above is an example of some of our data: a mosaic of the nearby disk galaxy NGC 253 and a close-up of a small portion of the image to show the detail we can see with HST. We clearly see the individual stars of a galaxy 4 Mpc away.
I am also heavily involved in a very large Chandra X-ray telescope program performing a high-resolution survey of the galaxy M33 (ChASeM33) as well as a large XMM-Newton program performing a wide-field survey of the galaxy M31 (XMM M31).
My personal interests include alpine skiing, rock and mountain climbing, backpacking, and guitar, but most of my free time is spent helping to parent my daughter, Brooke, who was born September 8, 2006.
Benjamin Williams (ben@astro.washington.edu)
Phone : 206 543 9849
FAX : 206 685 0403
MAILING ADDRESS
Astronomy Dept.
University of Washington
Box 351580
Seattle WA 98195-1580
SHIPPING ADDRESS
3910 15th Ave NE
Seattle WA 98195-1580