People
The Department of Astronomy family at the University of
Florida is formed by an excellent group of people among which we find Faculty, Staff,
Post-Docs, Graduate
Students, Undergraduate
Students
and Alumni.
| Reba Bandyopadhyay Assistant Scientist D.Phil 1998 (Oxford) www.astro.ufl.edu/~reba/ 316 Bryant Space Science Center (352) 392 2052 (232)  |
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Areas of Specialty
X-ray binaries, the Galactic Centre, near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy, black holes, neutron stars, relativistic jets, interstellar extinction and structure, infrared instrumentation, X-ray observations, Galactic stellar populations, very high energy emission from X-ray binaries and compact objects.
Research Interests
My primary research interest is infrared and X-ray
observations of X-ray Binaries (XRBs). These are interacting binary
stars comprised by a "normal" star and a "compact object" - a black
hole or neutron star. Material from the normal star is accreted onto a
disk around the compact object, producing strong X-ray emission. I am
particularly interested in studying the large population of XRBs
located in/near the Galactic Centre. Due to the large amount of gas and
dust in the centre of the Milky Way, the optical light from these XRBs
does not reach us on Earth. Therefore infrared (IR) observations of
these systems are required to determine their properties, such as
orbital period and masses of the two system components, and thus
identify which sources are stellar-mass black holes and which are
neutron stars.
I am also involved in IR instrumentation for large telescopes as a member of the FLAMINGOS-2 team. FLAMINGOS-2 is a near-IR cryogenic imager and multi-object spectrograph being built for the 8-meter Gemini South telescope in Chile. My primary task is to assist in the testing of the instrument during integration, optimize it for scientific use, and participate in the commissioning of FLAMINGOS-2 on the telescope in 2009.
Biography
I received my D.Phil in Astrophysics at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England in 1998, under the supervision of Prof. Phil Charles. I then spent several years as a US National Research Council Associate in the Space Science Division of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. In 2001 I returned to the Oxford Astrophysics Department as a member of the Gemini Observatory's UK National Office. I arrived at the University of Florida in the Autumn of 2005, joining the Infrared Instrumentation group as an Assistant Scientist.
Last Updated 01.Sep.2007
