Spider Star
The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
Read More.Praise for Star Dragon
"Seldom does a storytelling talent come along as potent and fully mature as Mike Brotherton. His complex characters take you on a voyage that is both fiercely credible and astonishingly imaginative. This is Science Fiction."
-- David Brin"Star Dragon is terrific fare, offering readers a fusion of hard science and grand adventure."
-- Locus Magazine"Star Dragon is steeped in cosmology, the physics of interstellar travel, exobiology, artificial intelligence, bioscience. Brotherton, author of many scientific articles in refereed journals, has written a dramatic, provocative, utterly convincing hard science sf novel that includes an ironic twist that fans will love."
-- Booklist starred review"Readers hungry for the thought-provoking extrapolation and rigorous technical detail of old-fashioned hard SF are sure to enjoy astronomer Brotherton's first novel."
-- Publishers Weekly"Mike Brotherton, himself a trained astrophysicist, combines the technical acuity and ingenuity of Robert Forward with the ironic, postmodern stance and style of M. John Harrison. In this, his debut novel, those twin talents unite to produce a work that is involving on any number of levels. It's just about all you could ask for in a hardcore SF adventure."
-- Paul di Fillippo, SCI-FI.COM
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A Personal Milestar Today
July 13th, 2012
I started as a professor at the University of Wyoming in the fall of 2002, a decade ago. Since then I’ve published a lot of papers and brought in a lot of grant money, as well as taught a lot of classes. There’s still one thing I’ve never done before: mentored a PhD student to completion.
That changes today. My student Sabrina Cales is defending her thesis this afternoon. Wish her luck (although getting a doctorate is not luck at all).
“Understanding Post-Starburst Quasars”, S. L. Cales, Friday the 13th of July at 2pm in the Prowse Room (PS234)
ABSTRACT:
Post-starburst quasars (PSQs) are an interesting type of hybrid galaxy that harbor both a post-starburst stellar population and luminous AGN. The starburst is hundreds of millions of years old with a mass on the order of 10 billion solar masses. This type of hybrid galaxy provides a natural breading ground for studying the role active galactic nuclei (AGN) play in galaxy evolution (i.e., the black hole mass-galaxy bulge mass relation). My thesis work has centered on testing the idea that, at z~0.3, PSQs are a phase in the life of galaxies triggered by external events (e.g., mergers, tidal interactions) or whether they are a more heterogeneous population in which multiple mechanisms can contribute to the class (i.e., external events and internal processes). This project is devoted to understanding the properties of PSQs and is comprised of three sub-projects: (i) two-dimensional image analysis with HST imaging and characterization of PSQ morphologies, (ii) determination of stellar population ages and masses and quasar black hole masses and accretion rates via spectral modeling of Keck and KPNO spectroscopy, (iii) comparisons of PSQ properties with other galaxy types and models. Finally, I briefly outline my conclusions in the context of AGN/galaxy evolution.
And when it rains, it pours. My second PhD student, Micheal DiPompeo, will be defending his dissertation on broad absorption line quasars this coming Wednesday!
They’ve both done well and have excellent post-doc positions awaiting them.
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Congratulations Mike and Sabrina!!
Sabrina passed with flying colors, just a couple of small additions to the thesis.
I expect Mike will do similar on Wednesday.
Planning an awesome double party for them on the 20th.