Sara Ellison

Sara Ellison is an Astronomy Professor at University of Victoria. Her work involves observational extragalactic astronomy, galaxy mergers and evolution, galactic chemistry and AGN.[1]

Sara Ellison
Academic background
EducationUniversity of Kent
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
Academic work
DisciplineAstronomy
InstitutionsUniversity of Victoria

Background and education

Ellison was inspired to study astronomy by a teacher who was also an astronomer. The only student in a physics class in her small, all-girls school, Ellison finished the standard curriculum quickly and spent the remainder of class time discussing astronomy with her teacher.[2]

Ellison enrolled in Physics and Space Science at the University of Kent in 1993 and received her MSc degree in Physics at this university in 1997. She went on to earn her PhD degree in Astronomy from University of Cambridge in 2000. After finishing her graduate studies, she worked as an ESO fellow in Chile for three years, and then joined the faculty of the University of Victoria as an Assistant Professor in 2003.[3][4] The same year, she was selected as Canada Research Chair (Tier II), a grant given to extraordinary emerging researchers by the Canadian government. In 2008, she became an Associate Professor and in 2014 a full Professor at the University of Victoria.[3]

Research

The main themes of Ellison's research are studying absorption lines in quasar spectra and studying the effects of environment on galaxy evolution.[5] Her quasar work has focused on studying the chemistry of gas along the line-of-sight to quasars such as Damped Lyman-alpha systems[6] and the Lyman-alpha forest.[7] Much of Ellison's most recent work has focused on using close pairs of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to investigate how galaxy interactions affect galaxy evolution.[8][9]

Personal

In addition to her work in astronomy, Ellison has been involved in science outreach since 1992.[10] She appeared on CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks to answer questions about lunar landing sites.[11] In a 2015 interview with the Vancouver Sun, she spoke about how she got interested in astronomy.[2] Her hobbies include painting on stretched canvas in acrylics.[12] An accomplished amateur athlete, Ellison has a Boston Qualifying marathon time and age group wins in both running and triathlon.[13]

Honours and awards

References
  1. "Astronomy Research". astro.uvic.ca. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  2. Robinson, ,Matthew. "Q&A: Gazing into space to see the future". The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  3. "A Brief CV". astro.uvic.ca. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  4. Staff, Guardian (18 November 2001). "Stars in their eyes". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  5. "Astronomy Research". astro.uvic.ca. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  6. Ellison, S. L.; Yan, L.; Hook, I. M.; Pettini, M.; Wall, J. V.; Shaver, P. (2001). "The CORALS survey I: New estimates of the number density and gas content of damped Lyman alpha systems free from dust bias". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 379: 393–406. arXiv:astro-ph/0109205. Bibcode:2001A&A...379..393E. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20011281.
  7. Ellison, Sara L.; Songaila, Antoinette; Schaye, Joop; Pettini, M. (2000). "The Enrichment History of the Intergalactic Medium-Measuring the C IV/H I Ratio in the Lyα Forest". The Astronomical Journal. 120: 1175–1191. arXiv:astro-ph/0005448. Bibcode:2000AJ....120.1175E. doi:10.1086/301511.
  8. Ellison, Sara L.; Patton, David R.; Simard, Luc; McConnachie, Alan W. (2008). "Galaxy Pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. I. Star Formation, Active Galactic Nucleus Fraction, and the Mass-Metallicity Relation". The Astronomical Journal. 135: 1877–1899. arXiv:0803.0161. Bibcode:2008AJ....135.1877E. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/135/5/1877.
  9. Ellison, Sara L.; Patton, David R.; Mendel, J. Trevor; Scudder, Jillian M. (2008). "Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – IV. Interactions trigger active galactic nuclei". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 418: 2043–2053. arXiv:1108.2711. Bibcode:2011MNRAS.418.2043E. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/135/5/1877.
  10. "Astronomy Outreach". astro.uvic.ca. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  11. "Quirks Question Period – Lunar Landing Sites". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  12. "Sara's Art Page". astro.uvic.ca. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  13. "Sara's Race Page". astro.uvic.ca. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
  14. "A Brief CV". astro.uvic.ca. Retrieved 15 June 2016.
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