Christopher De Vries

Research Interests

Triggered and Sequential Star Formation. Protostellar Evolution. Turbulence in Molecular Clouds. Radiative Transfer Modeling.

Ph.D. in Astronomy: University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2002
Dissertation: Models and Observations of the Millimeter and Submillimeter Molecular Line Emission of Bright-Rimmed Clouds
B.A. in Astronomy: Cornell University, 1995

Modeling Molecular Cloud Infall: Developed analytic radiative transfer models to derive infall velocity by fitting blue-asymmetric molecular line profiles.
Spitzer Core Catalog: Observed approximately 40 starless cores at FCRAO in several molecular transitions in order to compliment the Spitzer c2d Legacy Project.
Extended Infall Regions: Observed 4 regions in which small stellar groups are thought to be forming at FCRAO, the SMT, and the CSO. Contrasted regions in which large-scale infall is visible to regions in which infall is only localized or not observed.
Bright-Rimmed Clouds: Observed bright-rimmed clouds at the SMA and FCRAO in order to further investigate the large and small scale kinematics within these clouds. Combined existing millimeter observations with Spitzer observations in order to study the star formation history in these regions by comparing the distribution of young stars with current molecular cloud cores.

Bright-Rimmed Clouds: Investigated these potential triggered star formation regions by performing millimeter and submillimeter observations on bright rimmed clouds and comparing those observations with hydrodynamic models of shock induced collapse in order to refine our understanding of this important star formation process.
Comet Chemistry: Participated in a radio survey of chemical tracers in comets Hyakutaki and Hale-Bopp, which increased our understanding of the coma constituents and our knowledge of chemical abundances in the early solar system.
Comet Tracking: Developed a subroutine which was integrated into the FCRAO 14m radio telescope's tracking program which allowed it to track comets and asteroids.
Heiles Cloud 2: Investigated the physical conditions of Heiles Cloud 2 using millimeter CS and C¹⁸O transitions to ascertain the density and quantity of gas around a star forming core and a possible transient overdense region.


Mercury Obliquity Measurement: Developed a method of perturbing the ephemeris of Mercury by making small perturbations to the assumed rotation axis, and used these perturbed ephemerides to reprocess S-band radar data previously obtained at Arecibo. Optimized the ephemeris and made the most accurate estimate of Mercury's obliquity to date.
NAIC Radar Processing Pipeline: Refined and developed a series of radar processing tools in C which could reduce S-band delay-doppler radar data from the Arecibo Observatory.
Venus Crater Surface Properties: Measured the radar cross section of all craters greater than 15 km in diameter found in the Magellan data set. Produced radar maps of Venus using Arecibo data taken in 1988 in two polarizations.

Astronomy 103: Observational Astronomy. Taught the students how to identify constellations, how telescopes work, and showed them clusters, nebulae, and planets. A course like this is both fun and easy to teach, as the subject matter is interesting to almost everyone.
Astronomy 100: Introductory Astronomy. Graded and held help desk sessions for this course. Gave three lectures when the professor was unavailable. This course is the standard introduction to astronomy which students generally take to fill a science requirement. Typically 100-200 students are in each class.