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Douglas L. Welch Professor Department of Physics and Astronomy  McMaster University  Hamilton, ON  L8S 4M1  Office:  ABB-317  Phone:  (905) 525-9140 x23186  FAX:    (905) 546-1252  E-mail:  welch@physics.mcmaster.ca Research Area: Astronomy & Astrophysics

 Research Interests

Douglas Welch received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 1985. He engaged in postdoctoral work at the National Research Council's Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics' Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, BC as a Research Associate before joining the faculty at McMaster in September 1988 as a NSERC University Research Fellow. He was Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at McMaster between July 1997 and May 2000.

The current research interests of Dr. Welch include the extragalactic distance scale, dark matter studies using microlensing and variable stars. His work with the MACHO Project has involved the analysis and characterization of pulsating variable stars. He has been a Co-I on several successful HST proposals and is a frequent user of offshore national facilities. He is part of the "Next Generation Microlensing Survey" (a.k.a. "SuperMACHO") began taking data in the 2001/2002 LMC observing season and is scheduled to continue for five years.

To date, he has supervised four Ph.D. and four M.Sc. students.

Dr. Welch is currently the Canadian Gemini Scientist.

Dr. Welch can also be found as a contributor to the weekly audio podcast about astronomy at slackerastronomy.org. You can subscribe to the podcast here.

Selected Publications

• "The MACHO Project Large Magellanic Cloud Variable Star Inventory. XI. Frequency Analysis of the Fundamental-Mode RR Lyrae Stars", C. Alcock, D. R. Alves, A. C. Becker, D. P. Bennett, K. H. Cook, A. J. Drake, K. C. Freeman, M. Geha, K. Griest, G. Kovacs, M. J. Lehner, S. L. Marshall, D. Minniti, C. Nelson, B. Peterson, P. Popowski, M. R. Pratt, P. J. Quinn, A. W. Rodgers, N. Suntzeff, W. Sutherland, T. Vandehei, D. L. Welch 2003, ApJ, 598, 597-609.

• "The MACHO Project LMC Variable Star Inventory: XII. Three Cepheid Variables in Eclipsing Binaries", C. Alcock, R. A. Allsman, D. R. Alves, A. C. Becker, D. P. Bennett, K. H. Cook, A. J. Drake, K. C. Freeman, K. Griest, S. L. Hawley, S. Keller, M. J. Lehner, D. Lepischak, S. L. Marshall, D. Minniti, C. A. Nelson, B. A. Peterson, P. Popowski, M. R. Pratt, P. J. Quinn, A. W. Rodgers, N. Suntzeff, W. Sutherland, T. Vandehei, D. L. Welch 2002, ApJ, 573, 338-350.

• "The MACHO Project LMC Variable Star Inventory: X. The R Coronae Borealis Stars",C. Alcock, R.A. Allsman, D.R. Alves, T.S. Axelrod, A. Becker, D.P. Bennett, Geoffrey C. Clayton, K.H. Cook, N. Dalal, A.J. Drake, K.C. Freeman, M. Geha, K.D. Gordon, K. Griest, D. Kilkenny, M.J. Lehner, S.L. Marshall, D. Minniti, K.A. Misselt, C.A. Nelson, B.A. Peterson, P. Popowski, M.R. Pratt, P.J. Quinn, C.W. Stubbs, W. Sutherland, A. Tomaney, T. Vandehei, D.L. Welch 2001, ApJ, 554, 298-315.

• "The MACHO Project LMC Variable Star Inventory. IX. Frequency Analysis of the First Overtone RR Lyrae Stars and the Indication for Nonradial Pulsations", C. Alcock, R. Allsman, D.R. Alves, T. Axelrod, A. Becker, D. Bennett, C. Clement, K.H. Cook, A. Drake, K. Freeman, M. Geha, K. Griest, G. Kovacs, D.W. Kurtz, M. Lehner, S. Marshall, D. Minniti, C. Nelson, B. Peterson, P. Popowski, M. Pratt, P. Quinn, A. Rodgers, J. Rowe, C. Stubbs, W. Sutherland, A. Tomaney, T. Vandehei, D.L. Welch 2000, ApJ, 542, 257-280.

• "The Variable Stars and Blue Horizontal Branch of the Metal-rich Globular Cluster NGC 6441", A.C. Layden, L.A. Ritter, D.L. Welch, and T.M.A. Webb 1999, AJ, 117, 1313-1331.

• "The MACHO Project LMC Variable Star Inventory: I. Beat Cepheids - Conclusive Evidence for the Excitation of the Second Overtone in Classical Cepheids", C. Alcock, R.A. Allsman, T.S. Axelrod, D.P. Bennett, K.H. Cook, K.C. Freeman, K. Griest, S.L. Marshall, B.A. Peterson, M.R. Pratt, P.J. Quinn, J. Reimann, A.W. Rodgers, C.W. Stubbs, W. Sutherland, and D.L. Welch (The MACHO Collaboration) 1995, AJ, 109, 1653-1662.

• "Near-infrared variant of the Barnes-Evans method for finding Cepheid distances calibrated with high-precision angular diameters", D.L. Welch 1994, AJ, 108, 1421-1426.

• "Robust Variable Star Detection Techniques Suitable for Automated Searchs: New Results for NGC 1866", D.L. Welch and P.B. Stetson 1993, AJ, 105, 1813-1821.

For a list of my refereed papers, click here. 

For a list of preprints from the arXiv.org website, click here.

The MACHO Project home page.

The SuperMACHO Project home page.

The McMaster Cepheid Photometry and Radial Velocity Archive can be accessed by clicking here. 

Useful JavaScript Calculators for Astronomy

• Julian Date from Calendar Date (UT)
• Calendar Date (UT) from Julian Date
• Absorption Law

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