Stephan S. Meyer

Professor, Departments of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Physics, and the College; Deputy Director, Enrico Fermi Institute; Associate Director, Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics

Education: Ph.D., Princeton, 1979

Contact Information

Phone: (773) 702-0097
Location: LASR 209
Email: meyeroddjob.uchicago.edu

Research

Experimental astrophysics, infrared astrophysics, observational cosmology

The research in Meyers group centers on the investigation of the observables left by the early Universe. Principle among these is the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) anisotropy and polarization. Meyer is a member of with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite team. The group is developing new detector technology for future cosmological experiments. The detectors, Frequency Selective Bolometers (FSB) are designed to provide optimal use of telescope focal planes with a multi-spectral filled focal pane array. Future projects using this technology are the SPEED camera to be used on the Heinrich Hertz Telescope (HHT), a balloon-borne instrument to measure fluctuations in the Cosmic Infrared Background (EDGE), and a balloon-borne polarization sensitive instrument to study the sub-mm polarized emission from high-galactic latitude dust (TPX). EDGE is designed to measure the galaxy density fluctuations on scales above 50 Mpc using large-scale fluctuations in the Cosmic Infrared Background (CIB). Using the sub-mm color of the CIB fluctuations a low-resolution 3-D map of the large-scale structure of galaxies can be made. TPX is designed to provide a large scale survey of high-galactic latitude polarized dust emission to learn about the properties and environment of the galactic dust and also to understand the polarized dust foreground contamination for CMBR experiements. A second future project is the development of the South Pole Telescope and a large-format bolometer array instrument designed to map polarization of significant sections of the southern sky at mm and sub-mm wavelengths on angular scales from several arcminutes to 1/2 degree.

Research Fields: Cosmology

Scientific Projects: Microwave Anisotropy Probe; MSAM-TopHAT; Planck; South Pole Telescope

Visit: Enrico Fermi Institute; Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics

Past Students

Graduate: Sarah M. Hansen (2008)

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