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Evan Kirby

Associate Professor

Associate Professor
Office
330 Nieuwland Science Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Phone
574-631-7732
Email
ekirby@nd.edu

Website

Education

Ph.D., Astronomy, University of California Santa Cruz, 2009
M.S., Astronomy, University of California Santa Cruz, 2006
B.S., Physics, Stanford University, 2004

Research

Prof. Evan Kirby specializes in using stellar spectroscopy to measure the content of stars in the nearby universe. His research concerns where and how the elements of the periodic table are created, as well as how they are dispersed into the universe. One highlight of his research is the quantification of the relationship between the stellar masses and metallicities of local galaxies. He also discovered that Type Ia supernovae in dwarf galaxies are the explosions of predominantly low-mass (sub-Chandrasekhar) white dwarfs. Prof. Kirby is also leading an undergraduate project focused on determining if and how much the Notre Dame Power Plant is emitting methane into the atmosphere.

Research Interests

Hydrocarbon leak detection, Nuclear Reactions, Spectroscopy, Energy Conversion and Efficiency, Sustainable and Secure Nuclear

Relevant Energy Publications

  1. “The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: Redshift Identification of Single-Line Emission Galaxies” Kirby, E. N., Guhathakurta, P., Faber, S. M., Koo, D. C., Weiner, B. J., & Cooper, M. C., 2007, ApJ, 660, 62
  2. “Metallicity and Alpha-Element Abundance Measurement in Red Giant Stars from Medium Resolution Spectra” Kirby, E. N., Guhathakurta, P., & Sneden, C., 2008, ApJ, 682, 1217Traustason, H., S. M. Aksenov, and P. C. Burns. "The lithium–water configuration encapsulated by uranyl peroxide cage cluster U 24." CrystEngComm 21, no. 3 (2019): 390-393.
  3. “Uncovering the Extremely Metal-Poor Stars in the Ultra-Faint Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies” Kirby, E. N., Simon, J. D., Geha, M. C., Guhathakurta, P., & Frebel, A., 2008, ApJL, 685, L43
  4. “Multi-Element Abundance Measurements from Medium-Resolution Spectra. I. The Sculptor Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy” Kirby, E. N., Guhathakurta, P., Bolte, M., Sneden, C., & Geha, M. C., 2009, ApJ, 705, 328
  5. “Multi-Element Abundance Measurements from Medium-Resolution Spectra. II. Catalog of Stars in Milky Way Dwarf Satellite Galaxies” Kirby, E. N., Guhathakurta, P., Simon, J. D., Geha, M. C., Rockosi, C. M., Sneden, C., Cohen, J. G., Sohn, S. T., Majewksi, S. R., & Siegel, M., 2010, ApJS, 191, 352