Physical & Biological Sciences Division
Professor/Astronomer
Faculty
ISB 135
UCO / Lick Observatory
Ph.D. 1983, Australian National University
B.Sc 1978, Australian National University
Much of Graeme Smith's research centers around properties of red giant stars within the Milky Way galaxy: their physical evolution, their chromospheric activity and mass loss, and what they can tell us about the chemical enrichment history of the Galaxy. Much of this later work has been directed towards the study of abundance differences among stars within globular clusters. These ancient stellar systems formed at a time when the process of chemical enrichment was just commencing within the Milky Way galaxy. Striking differences in the abundances of elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen exist among stars within the same globular cluster. Understanding the origin of these differences can provide information about the early environment in the halo of the Galaxy, within which the globular clusters formed, as well as processes such as deep mixing that occur within the interiors of cluster red giants.
