People at LBC
Brian O'Shea, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
| Department: | Physics |
| Address: | E-193A Holmes |
| Phone: | (517) 353-3871 |
| Email: | oshea@msu.edu |
Background: I received my B.S. in Engineering Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2000, followed by a M.S.and a PhD in Physics from UIUC in 2002 and 2005. The majority of my PhD was spent in residence at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. After I received my PhD in 2005, I was a Director's Postdoctoral Fellow in the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory. I joined Lyman Briggs College and the Department of Physics and Astronomy in Fall 2008.
Research: I am a theoretical astrophysicist whose research focuses on galaxy formation and evolution. I use supercomputers to perform large-scale numerical simulations of the formation of cosmological structure, starting from the first stars that form in the universe and continuing to the present day. I am particularly interested in the properties of clusters of galaxies, which have the potential to be useful probes of the fundamental properties of our Universe. For more information about my research, please visit my Physics and Astronomy Department web page.
Teaching: I enjoy teaching physics and astronomy courses at all levels, from introductory mechanics to graduate-level astrophysics courses. I am particularly interested in making my courses engaging and interactive, and demonstrating how the material learned in class relates to current topics in research as well as to other subjects and fields. I am one of the instructors in the LB 271/272 introductory physics course sequence.
Outreach: In addition to teaching university students, I believe that it is important to educate as wide a cross-section of the public as possible about astronomy, astrophysics, and other sciences. To this end, I have had a long-term collaboration with the Advanced Visualization Laboratory at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications to make movies for PBS Nova, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic television documentaries, as well as for the Denver Planetarium, the Hayden Planetarium in New York, and the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.
Research: I am a theoretical astrophysicist whose research focuses on galaxy formation and evolution. I use supercomputers to perform large-scale numerical simulations of the formation of cosmological structure, starting from the first stars that form in the universe and continuing to the present day. I am particularly interested in the properties of clusters of galaxies, which have the potential to be useful probes of the fundamental properties of our Universe. For more information about my research, please visit my Physics and Astronomy Department web page.
Teaching: I enjoy teaching physics and astronomy courses at all levels, from introductory mechanics to graduate-level astrophysics courses. I am particularly interested in making my courses engaging and interactive, and demonstrating how the material learned in class relates to current topics in research as well as to other subjects and fields. I am one of the instructors in the LB 271/272 introductory physics course sequence.
Outreach: In addition to teaching university students, I believe that it is important to educate as wide a cross-section of the public as possible about astronomy, astrophysics, and other sciences. To this end, I have had a long-term collaboration with the Advanced Visualization Laboratory at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications to make movies for PBS Nova, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic television documentaries, as well as for the Denver Planetarium, the Hayden Planetarium in New York, and the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.
