Sylvain Veilleux is a Professor in the Department of Astronomy and is currently serving as the Optical Director. He is primarily interested in the physics of active galactic nuclei and starburst galaxies, particularly the connection between the supermassive black hole, the starburst, and the host galaxy, and the importance of feedback on galaxy evolution and the intracluster medium. He uses instrumentation that covers the entire electromagnetic spectrum from the X-rays (e.g., Chandra and XMM-Newton), UV-optical (e.g., HST, ground-based telescopes), and infrared-radio (e.g., Spitzer, Herschel, GBT, JVLA, CARMA and ALMA). He is also the lead on a number of instrumentation projects for large ground-based optical and infrared telescopes.

Research Projects

• Supermassive black hole - starburst - galaxy connection at low and high redshifts
  • Quasar/ULIRG Evolution STudy (QUEST) and follow-up projects
  • Deep Wide-Field Surveys of Emission-Line Galaxies with MMTF & NEWFIRM
• Impact of feedback on galaxy evolution and ICM
• Instrumentation for ground-based optical and infrared telescopes
  • MMTF: Maryland - Magellan Tunable Filter (Baade 6.5m)
  • NEWFIRM: NOAO Extremely Wide-Field Infrared Mosaic (NOAO 4m)
  • RIMAS: Rapid infrared IMAger - Spectrometer (DCT 4.3m)
  • MOHSIS: the Maryland OH Suppression Integral Field System (Astrophotonics, DCT 4.3m)

Notable Publications

• Spitzer Quasar and ULIRG Evolution Study (QUEST). IV. Comparison of 1 Jy Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies with Palomar-Green Quasars" Veilleux, S. et al. 2009, ApJS, 182, 628
• "Galactic Winds" Veilleux, S., Cecil, G., & Bland-Hawthorn, J. 2005, ARAA, 43, 769
• "Optical and Near-Infrared Imaging of the IRAS 1 Jy Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies. II. Analysis" Veilleux, S., et al. 2002, ApJS, 143, 315
• "Optical Spectroscopy of Luminous Infrared Galaxies. II. Analysis" Veilleux, S., et al. 1995, ApJS, 98, 171
• "Spectral classification of emission-line galaxies" Veilleux, S. & Osterbrock, D. E. 1987, ApJS, 63, 295