07/02/2009

Nancy Levenson Named Gemini Deputy Director & Head of Science

Nancy Levenson, the Jack and Linda Gill Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Kentucky has been appointed as the new Deputy Director & Head of Science of the Gemini Observatory. 

Levenson is the Deputy of the CanariCam AGN Science Team and a Science Team Associate for the International X-ray Observatory. She has been a member of the Gemini Science Committee since 2007.

Her main research is the exploration of the relationship between accretion onto supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei and the associated bursts of surrounding star formation. Her work on the X-ray properties of starburst/AGN galaxies demonstrates the key role that starbursts play in obscuring the central engine of active galaxies, and she has worked on the development of the so called “clumpy” torus model of AGN.

Levenson will be based at Gemini South, La Serena, Chile where she will start work on August 3rd, 2009.

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