Dr. Pierre Martin

WIYN Observatory
950 N. Cherry Ave.
Tucson, AZ 85719
Phone: (520) 318-8484
Email: pmartin_at_noao.edu


 

Hello! Bonjour! Hola! Aloha!

Welcome to my home page! I am an astronomer and the Director of the WIYN Observatory, which operates two telescopes on Kitt Peak, Arizona. The main WIYN facility is a modern 3.5 meter telescope with superb possibilities for conducting world-class astrophysical research. WIYN is currently building the most sophisticated wide-field camera for astronomy, the One Degree Imager, which should be available for science in 2011. Prior to this current position, I was the Director of Science Operations at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. At CFHT, I was also the Project Scientist/Manager of the Queued Service Observing (QSO) project and the Manager of the CFHT Astronomy Group. Before all of that, I got my Ph.D in astrophysics at the Université Laval (Quebec City) in 1992, spent 3 years as a post-doc fellow at Steward Observatory (Tucson, Az) and, for almost 2 years, I was a fellow for the ESO New Technology Telescope in Chile.
On the science side, I am working on the chemical evolution of galaxies, star formation, morphology of galaxies, and interacting systems. I am particularly interested (no, sorry, obsessed) by barred spirals. More recently, I have become interested in near-IR observations of planetary nebulae in order to study the molecular hydrogen in these objects. Hopefully, I'll have time to put some of my work on this site some day....
On the personal side, I was born in St-Alexis de Matapédia, a very small village in the eastern part of the Province of Québec where my parents still live. I am married to wonderful Dr. Patricia E. Pérez, a Texan from Houston (yes, the home of the Astros but also the giant mosquitoes...), and we both live in a nice house on the eastern side of Tucson, with our cats Socks and Smokey. I like professional sports, particularly hockey and baseball, but my favorite hobby is drumming! I have been bashing the heads for well over 30 years now, mostly playing along drummers from my favorite progressive rock bands, and I have no plan to stop anytime soon (so beware if you're looking for quiet neighbours...)! I have recently joined a few musicians here in Tucson and started a soon-to-be-named Rush Tribute Band. We expect to go out and perform in 2010... Stay tuned!

 


 

Astronomy

Music

Pierre's Homepage recreated 9/9/97
Dr. Pierre Martin /