Gregory Tucker
Associate Professor:
Physics
Phone: +1 401 863 1441
Phone 2: +1 401 863 1352
gregory_tucker@brown.edu
Professor Tucker's observational cosmology group studies the early universe by measuring the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and by looking at the very earliest galaxies to have formed in the universe. The group designs and builds special purpose instruments for these measurements and then uses them and analyzes the results.
Some of the questions the group seeks to answer are the following: What happened during the epoch of inflation? How and when did galaxies form? Current experiments include The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST), the E and B Experiment (EBEX), The Millimeter-wave Bolometric Interferometer (MBI) and The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP).
Biography
Prof. Tucker joined the Brown faculty in 1997. A graduate of M.I.T., he received a Ph.D. from Princeton University. Prior to joining the Brown faculty, he did postdoctoral work at the University of British Columbia and was a physicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Research Description
Professor Tucker's observational cosmology group studies the early universe by measuring the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and by looking at the very earliest galaxies to have formed in the universe. The group designs and builds special purpose instruments for these measurements and then uses them and analyzes the results. Only a year ago, the best one could say was that the universe was roughly 10-15 billion years old, rather than precisely 13.7 billion years. This great advance has been possible by measuring the intensity differences of the CMB with exquisite accuracy. These measurements were made by one instrument that Greg Tucker's observational cosmology group at Brown helped to design and build - the Wilkinson microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite, which was launched on 30 June 2001. Professor Tucker joined the Brown faculty in 1997. A graduate of M.I.T., he received a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1991. Prior to joining the Brown faculty, he did postdoctoral work at the University of British Columbia and was a physicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He is the recipient of a Richard B. Salomon Faculty Research Award (1998 and 2001). The primary emphasis of his research is cosmology and, in particular, measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and the very early universe. Some of the questions his group seeks to answer are the following: How old is the universe? How much matter (normal and more exotic forms) does it contain? How and when did galaxies form? Current experiments include The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST), The Millimeter-wave Bolometric Interferometer (MBI), and The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP).
Honors and Awards
National Academy of Sciences National Research Council Senior Fellowship (2002)
Affiliations
American Astronomical Society
American Physical Society
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Sigma Xi
Phi Beta Kappa
Teaching Experience
Please see CV
Funded Research
- 2006 - 2009 Extragalactic and Galactic Surveys with the Balloon-borne Large Aperture
Sub-millimeter Telescope - BLAST, NASA, co-I - 2006 - 2009 The E and B Experiment (EBEX), NASA, co-I
- 2004 - 2006 Mission Concept Study for the Einstein Polarization Interferometer
for Cosmology (EPIC), NASA, co-I - 2003 - 2006 Development of the Millimeter-wave Bolometric Interferometer,
NASA, PI - 2003 - 2006 BLAST: A Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope |
A Comprehensive Plan for Galactic and Extragalactic Surveys
from a Long Duration Balloon Platform,
NASA, Institutional PI - 2003 - 2006 Teacher Training Through Research and Public Understanding
of Cosmology, NASA, PI - 2000 - 2003 BLAST: A Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope |
A Comprehensive Plan for Galactic and Extragalactic Surveys
at Sub-millimeter Wavelengths,
NASA, Institutional PI - 1998 - 1999 Constellation-X Mission Microcalorimeter Development,
Smithsonian Institution
Web Links
Curriculum Vitae
Read Gregory Tucker's full Faculty Research Profile.
