What And Where I Am

Chuck after a verrrry loooong observing run...

Chuck after getting some rest... (Click on the image to see my 2003 CUNY PR bio)

Director
The Verrazano School at CSI and Macaulay Honors College at CSI

Astrophysics professor
The City University of New York
College of Staten Island
Department of Engineering Science and Physics

Bldg 5N-114, 2800 Victory Blvd
Staten Island, NY 10314
voice: +1 718 982 2817
fax: +1 718 982 2830
email: cliu at mail dot csi dot cuny dot edu

Associate
The Hayden Planetarium and Dept of Astrophysics
Division of Physical Sciences
American Museum of Natural History

Museum Contact Information

Hayden Planetarium and Department of Astrophysics
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th Street
New York, NY 10024
voice: +1 212 496 3579
fax: +1 212 769 5007
email: cliu at amnh dot org

Research

Research Interests

I work primarily on observational galaxy evolution, primarily the star formation histories of field galaxies. This includes the spectrophotometric study of starburst galaxies, post-starburst objects, and colliding, merging, and interacting galaxies. I've also dabbled in quasar-hunting, strictly avocationally.

A large project I'm active in is and a Hubble Space Telescope Treasury Program called COSMOS.

Click on NGC 7727 above to
get some beautiful images from
our National Observatories.

Curriculum Vitae

To find my CV, publications list, and so forth, please visit my Personal Home Page.
Here's a sampling as of around 2008 - I'll update this eventually!

Abstract of a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal.
(You're also welcome to the full 0.5-megabyte PDF version.)

Abstract of another paper published in the Astrophysical Journal.
(You're also welcome to the full 0.7-megabyte PDF version.)

Abstract of a paper in the Astrophysical Journal Supplements.
(You're also welcome to the full 1.7-megabyte PDF version.)

Abstract of a paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
(You're also welcome to the full 400-kilobyte PDF version.)

A poster presented at an American Astronomical Society meeting. (It's a 6.2-megabyte PDF file.)

Teaching

Courses

Please see my Personal Home Page for a list of courses I have taught and developed.
Here is a few-year-old newspaper article that describes, mostly correctly, some of my teaching efforts and philosophies.
Here is an interview about education and science, from a wonderful former student of mine. (You can also look here.)

For General Audiences

The Handy Astronomy
Answer Book (2008)

This book was released in October 2008. Here is a very good description of this book, published in Kirkus Reviews. Click the image to take a look at a bookseller's perspective of the book, or click here. Enjoy!

One Universe: At Home
In The Cosmos (2000)

This book, which I co-wrote with Neil Tyson and Robert Irion, was awarded the 2001 American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award in Physics and Astronomy in the scientist category. Thanks to the wonderful people of Joseph Henry Press (once part of the National Academies Press ), a FREE online edition was created, with supplemental material, formulae, and over 100 exercises and solutions. It contains all the text and figures of the original book, which is still in print. (It hasn't been updated in a little while, so some of the external links aren't active.) Thanks to a former student of mine in the CUNY/Hayden Intro To Space Science class, you can also view it by clicking the image.

Outreach

Various Links

Please see my Personal Home Page for details about my non-classroom teaching activities.
Here is a web article from a few years back that describes a portion of the AMNH Physical Sciences Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program that I help supervise.
( Here's the link to that program's webpage.)

Transcript (I'm the last segment) of a television interview.
I'm on TV occasionally, for example here on CNN (here's some video).

Lecture announcement for a public event some years ago. I tend to give give a number of such lectures every year.

A fun Internet article with Brian Greene, Rich Gott, Michio Kaku, and me talkin' turkey 'bout time travel.
(For video, you can look here or possibly here.)

One of my columns in Natural History. I was a contributing editor of that magazine until 2010.
(This particular article received an award from the Solar Physics Division of the AAS.)

Here is a 2010 newspaper article with some nice pictures. Only one minor error - it's in a figure caption.
(You can also look here.)

Here is a fun and friendly online interview from 2011 about the Top 3 Questions astronomers get asked.
(You can also look here or here.)

Here is a 2011 magazine interview in New Jersey Monthly.
(You can also look here.)

Here is a 2012 profile article put together by the College of Staten Island.

Here is a 2013 profile article put together by the CUNY central communications office.

Hayden Planetarium

The Hayden Sphere, in the Rose
Center, weighs 4,000,000 pounds.

It was a privilege for me to be one of the scientists who helped put this place together - it seems so long ago now. This place is, however, far more than just the world's leading planetarium. Behind its glass walls is a world-class staff of scientists and researchers, interpreting the science of the universe and bringing it to the public. Click on the image to see some of those efforts in action.

		Charles Liu
		Personal Home Page \| AMNH Astrophysics \| AMNH Research

Charles Liu