Eric Mamajek's Home Page

Eric Mamajek
Assistant Professor (on leave)
Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
University of Rochester

11 Jan 2012: "Planetary Construction Zones in Occultation:
Discovery of an Extrasolar Ring System Transiting a Young Sun-like Star
and Future Prospects for Detecting Eclipses by Circumsecondary and
Circumplanetary Disks" (Mamajek, Quillen, Pecaut, Moolekamp, Scott,
Kenworthy, Collier Cameron, & Parley, Astronomical Journal, in press)"

Light curve animations by Matt Kenworthy: #1, #2, #3

(graphic of the ring system by Mike Osadciw)

Physics & Astronomy Department:
UR Physics & Astronomy REU Summer Research Program
UR College Academic Calendar and PAS Dept Calendar
UR Physics & Astronomy Grad & Undergrad Programs
Undergrad Requirements for Physics & Astronomy majors
PHY & AST classes: undergrad physics & astro, grad physics & astro
UR Physics & Astro Visitor's Info

Astrophysics Group:
Mees Observatory Summer Tours
SMARTS consortium
Astronomical Society of New York (ASNY)

Curriculum Vitae, Press

Publications: Google Scholar, sorted by # of citations, 1st-author only sorted by # citations,
sorted by date, astro-ph submissions, IAU 258 (The Ages of Stars)

Congratulations to Scott Barenfeld for winning a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship

Eric joined the University of Rochester faculty in 2008 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. His primary research interests are the formation and evolution of planetary systems, stars, and stellar groups in our Galactic neighborhood. His recent and on-going research projects and collaborations involve quantifying and trying to understand the evolution of protoplanetary and dusty debris disks around normal stars, improving distance and age estimates to astrophysically interesting stellar, protostellar, substellar, and planetary systems, and surveys to image extrasolar planets and substellar companions to nearby stars in the near- and thermal infrared. He has also recently discovered a few new nearby young stellar groups in the solar neighborhood within a few hundred parsecs of the Sun, and is interested in investigating the recent star-formation history and kinematics of the solar neighborhood and what it can inform us about star-formation mechanisms. He also recently co-authored a paper on the observational consequences of protoplanet collisions, and recently codiscovered an extrasolar ring system (possibly a circumplanetary or "protoexosatellite" disk?) transiting a young Sun-like star.

Eric received his Ph.D. in Astronomy (2004) from the University of Arizona, a M.Sc. in Physics (2000) from the University of New South Wales/ADFA, and a B.S. in Physics and Astronomy & Astrophysics (1998) from the Pennsylvania State University. Eric was awarded a 4-year Clay Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in 2004 -- the first recipient of the fellowship to come directly from graduate school. In 1998, Eric was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to work with Warrick Lawson at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.