Shashi Kanbur

I am a Professor in the Physics and Earth Science departments at SUNY Oswego. I teach a wide range of courses from introductory physics and astronomy courses to cosmology and general relativity. My main research interests center around stellar pulsation and evolution, cosmology, the extra-galactic distance scale. I am a theorist who has recently dabbled in data analysis and observations.

My research is funded by NASA/HST, NSF and the American Astronomical Society. I have a number of collaborators in the US and abroad and work with quite a few undergraduates. If you are an undergraduate interested in working on a student project, don't hesitate to drop by and see me or email me.

Research 

Currently I have the following research grants:

• NASA/HST Cycle 14 (co-I): A recalibration of the distances to 22 galaxies observed by the HST using standardized techniques. Some of the papers below resulted from this grant.
• American Astronomical Society: Small research grant to develop the testimator method plus other statistical techniques to investigate the non-linearity of the LMC Cepheid PL relation.
• American Astronomical Society: The Chretien International Research Award. A long term observation project in collaboration with the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil to use the Brazilian National telescope facility to observe Cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds and to develop a robotic telescope.
• Entergy: to develop and give a series of planetarium/science shows to local elementary schools that match with the the fifth grade curriculum.
• Dean's grant for summer research ($2000): to analyze hydrodynamical models of RR Lyrae stars.
• Scholarly and Creative Award for students ($1000): to work on a number of projects related to Cepheids and RR Lyraes.

Awards and honors 

• HST/NASA Cycle 10 Award on "A comparison of the Cepheid and Supernova type II distance scales."
• HST/NASA Cycle 9 Award on "A recalibration of the Cepheid distance scale using PL relations at maximum light."
• HST/NASA Cycle 9 EPO on "Planetarium shows and Astronomy: Leading children into scientific curiosity."