Dr. Aleks Scholz

- Position:
-
Director of the University Observatory
- Research Theme:
- Astronomy
- Institution:
- St. Andrews
- Email address:
- as110@st-andrews.ac.uk
- Website:
- http://www-star.st-and.ac.uk/~as110/
- Telephone number:
- +44 (0)1334 461668
- Address:
- School of Physics & Astronomy, Physical Science Building, North Haugh, St Andrews, KY16 9SS, United Kingdom
Research interests
I am an observational astronomer working on problems in star and planet formation. Since 2006 I am leading the project SONYC, which conducts unbiased extremely deep imaging and spectroscopy surveys of nearby star forming regions, with the goal to find all young brown dwarfs and free-floating planetary mass objects. This project will continue in the next years with new facilities like James Webb Space Telescope and with Gaia. I analyse accretion and disks of young sources, with the goal to constrain formation scenarios for stars, brown dwarfs and planets. Using time-domain observations, I study rotation, surface properties, and the dynamical environments of young stellar and substellar objects. I am working with 8-m telescopes like the ESO/VLT and Subaru, with space telescopes like Spitzer and Kepler, with submm facilities like ALMA and SMA, with the robotic 1-m telescoes of the Las Cumbres Observatory, and with our local James Gregory Telescope, the largest telescope in Scotland.
Teaching
My teaching is focused on observational and introductory astrophysics. I am module coordinator and lecturer in first year astrophysics. I also coordinate the observational components of the MSc program in astrophysics. I provide observing training at our local telescopes for postgraduate and undergraduate students. In addition, I teach introductory astronomy for non-science students.
Research outputs
- Discovery of a magnetic white dwarf with unusual short-period variability DOI, Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society, 2, 1 (2018)
- The JCMT Transient Survey DOI, Astrophysical Journal, 854, 1 (2018)
- A deep staring campaign in the σ Orionis cluster. Variability in substellar members DOI, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 608 (2017)
- Very low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in Upper Scorpius using Gaia DR1 DOI, Astronomical Journal, 154, 6 (2017)
- The JCMT Transient Survey DOI, Astrophysical Journal, 849, 2 (2017)
- The 2014-2017 outburst of the young star ASASSN-13db. A time-resolved picture of a very-low-mass star between EXors and FUors DOI, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 607 (2017)
- The low-mass content of the massive young star cluster RCW 38 DOI, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 471, 3 , p. 3699-3712 (2017)
- How do stars gain their mass? A JCMT/SCUBA-2 transient survey of protostars in nearby star-forming regions DOI, Astrophysical Journal, 849, 1 (2017)
- Long-term variability of T Tauri stars using WASP DOI, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 465, 4 , p. 3889-3901 (2017)
- The disappearing act: a dusty wind eclipsing RW Aur DOI, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 463, 4 , p. 4459-4468 (2016)