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Wesleyan Home → Astronomy → People

Faculty

Chair

William Herbst

John Monroe Van Vleck Professor of AstronomyShow Bio and Photo

John Monroe Van Vleck Professor of Astronomy
Van Vleck Observatory 104
860-685-3672

Professor of Astronomy
Van Vleck Observatory 104
860-685-3672

Chair, Astronomy Department
860-685-3672

Director, Van Vleck Observatory
860-685-3672

Director of Graduate Studies

wherbst@wesleyan.edu

BA Princeton University
MAA Wesleyan University
MSC University of Toronto
PHD University of Toronto

Fall 2012

ASTR155 - 01
Introductory Astronomy

ASTR500 - 01
Graduate Pedagogy

ASTR591 - 01
Advanced Research, Graduate

SCIE636 - 01
The Universe

Spring 2013

ASTR107 - 01
The Universe

ASTR107 - 02
The Universe

ASTR107 - 03
The Universe

ASTR107 - 04
The Universe

ASTR422 - 03
Undergraduate Research, Scienc

ASTR492 - 02
Teaching Apprentice Tutorial

ASTR592 - 04
Advanced Research, Graduate

Personal Homepage:
https://wesfiles.wesleyan.edu/home/wherbst/web/HomePage/

Office Hours:
By appointment via e-mail.

Research Interests:
I am an optical astronomer interested in low mass star and planet formation. I study the light variations of extremely young stars that are analogous to the Sun at the time the Solar System was forming. I use telescopes on campus and around the world (and above it!) to carry on this research. One object of particular interest that we discovered here at Wesleyan is KH 15D, also known as the "winking star". It is a unique astronomical object that promises to tell us much about protoplanetary disks.

Scholarly Keywords:
Star Formation
T Tauri Stars

Academic Associations:
American Astronomical Society
International Astronomical Union
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Sigma Xi

Grants:
I have had continuous support for my research from the National Science Foundation and/or NASA since 1982. I am currently supported through NASA's Origins of Solar Systems program.

Publications:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-abs_connect?return_req=no_params&&author=HERBST,%20W&db_key=AST