The University of Rochester is home to an Astrophysics group (a group within the Department of Physics and Astronomy) that encompasses many areas of astronomy including observational astronomy and detector science, in addition to computational and theoretical astrophysics. The Near-Infrared Astronomy group, headed by Professors Judy Pipher and Bill Forrest, focuses on observational astronomy in the near-infrared as well as on detector research. Another branch of observational astronomy studied at the U of R involves the mid- and far-infrared, and is headed by Professor Dan Watson. In addition, Alice Quillen has recently joined as a faculty member in the Astrophysics group.

Current Research

Spitzer Space Telescope (...formerly known as SIRTF...)

All three of the aforementioned professors are involved in the Space InfraRed Telescope Facility (SIRTF), which was recently renamed the Spitzer Space Telescope after the late Lyman Spitzer, Jr., an astrophysicist who first proposed the idea of placing a large telescope in space.

SIRTF Launched!!!! August 25, 2003 Read about it

The article "The Last Great Eye in the Sky", which appeared in the 2001 Rochester Review, focuses on Judy, Bill and Dan's involvement with SIRTF.

To see some of the near-infrared lab's research on pre-SIRTF observational projects, click here. (Warning! There are images here that are huge and may take awhile to load, but they are well worth the wait!)

NIR Camera

In addition to observational astronomy, the near-infrared lab focuses on detector science. Please click here to review our recent detector research.

Previous Research

For examples of some of the older research performed in the NIR lab, click here.

Rochester AAS Meeting

The University of Rochester was proud to host the 196th American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting held June 4-8, 2000. Click here to browse the final program for the meeting.