Ian Roederer

Stellar abundances and nucleosynthesis

Ian Roederer's research addresses fundamental problems in nuclear astrophysics and near-field cosmology, using stellar chemistry to understand the formation and evolution of the Milky Way and Local Group and the origin of the heaviest elements. He frequently uses the high-resolution spectrographs at Magellan and on board the Hubble Space Telescope to make these observations.

Related research interests

Origin of the elements, nuclear astrophysics, Galactic chemical evolution, globular clusters, dwarf galaxies, Milky Way formation and evolution

Research highlights

• Discovered 40% of all r-process enhanced stars known [32, 51, 59, 72, 73]
• First to publish on the first-known r-process enhanced galaxy, Reticulum II [39]
• Published the most complete chemical inventory for any object beyond the Solar System, HD 222925 [56, 85]
• Made the first detections of Ga, As, Se, Cd, In, Sb, Te, Lu, W, and Re—more than 15% of the elements detectable—in the spectra of cool stars useful for probing nucleosynthesis [7, 15, 17, 85]
• Released the largest set of hand-crafted abundance derivations (48 elements in each of 313 metal-poor stars), which is widely used as a calibration and comparison sample [27]
• Produced the first study of the orbital kinematics of r-process enhanced stars, revealing probable dwarf galaxy or extragalactic origins [57]
• Published the first study of the detailed chemistry of stars in a stellar stream representing one of the major building blocks of the Milky Way [6]
• Found the first evidence that the Milky Way globular/star cluster metallicity floor may extend to [Fe/H] ~ −3, a factor of 2.5 times lower than previously thought [66]
  
  

Publications

For articles that include this author, use this ADS search.