Dan M. Watson

Biographical Sketch: Prof. Watson received his B.S. in Physics (Philosophy minor) from Revelle College, University of California, San Diego (1976), and received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley (1983). After postdoctoral work as a Millikan Fellow at the California Institute of Technology, he joined the University as Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy in 1988. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1995 and to Professor in 2001. Prof. Watson received a NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award (1989-94). He also received the Department of Physics and Astronomy Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching five times (1992, 1994 ,2003, 2004, 2005) and the University of Rochester Goergen Award for Distinguished Achievement and Artistry in Undergraduate Teaching (2006).

Research:

Prof. Watson's research group is involved both in observational infrared and radio astronomy, and the development of infrared detector arrays and astronomical instruments. His principal astrophysical interests include: the physics of the formation of stars and molecular cloud complexes, including the interaction of recently-formed stars with their environment; the structure and evolution of star-forming galaxies; and the nature of active galaxy nuclei. Much of this work is best or exclusively done through observation of molecular, ionic and atomic spectral lines in interstellar gas at infrared and submillimeter wavelengths (1 - 1000 microns). Prof. Watson and his group are developing imaging detector arrays and instruments for this waveband, exploiting the "blocked-impurity-band" detector concept. He is also a co-investigator on the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) instrument on the NASA Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), a satellite observatory scheduled to be launched in December 2001.

For further details, go to Prof. Watson's home page at: http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~dmw/.