Biography
Nicholas Suntzeff is an observational astronomer, working the fields of cosmology, supernovae, galaxy evolution and large-scale structure, stellar populations, astronomical site surveys, and instrumentation. Suntzeff studied mathematics at Stanford University (B.S. with distinction 1974) and astronomy and astrophysics at Lick Observatory, UC Santa Cruz (Ph.D. 1980). He has worked as an astronomer at the University of Washington, the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, and the US National Optical Astronomy Observatory/Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in La Serena, Chile where he was the Associate Director for Science for NOAO. In 1994 with Dr. Brian Schmidt, he co-founded the High-Z Supernova Team which in 1998 discovered acceleration and the presence of Dark Energy in the Universe. He was also a co-founder of the Calan/Tololo Supernova Survey which established Type Ia supernovae as the most precise markers for measuring cosmological distances.
Selected Publications
Mario Hamuy, Régis Cartier, Carlos Contreras, and Nicholas B Suntzeff. “The value of the Hubble--Lemaître constant queried by Type Ia supernovae: a journey from the Calán-Tololo Project to the Carnegie Supernova Program.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 500(1), 1095--1113, Jan 2021.
Syed A Uddin, Christopher R. Burns, M. M. Phillips, Nicholas B. Suntzeff, Carlos Contreras, Eric Y. Hsiao, Nidia Morrell, Lluís Galbany, Maximilian Stritzinger, Peter Hoeflich, Chris Ashall, Anthony L. Piro, Wendy L. Freedman, S. E. Persson, Kevin Krisciunas, and Peter Brown. “The Carnegie Supernova Project-I: Correlation between Type Ia Supernovae and Their Host Galaxies from Optical to Near-infrared Bands.” The Astrophysical Journal, 901(2), 143, Oct 2020.
Christopher R. Burns, et al. “SN 2013aa and SN 2017cbv: Two Sibling Type Ia Supernovae in the Spiral Galaxy NGC 5643.” The Astrophysical Journal, 895(2), 118, Jun 2020.
M. D. Stritzinger, et al. “The Carnegie Supernova Project II.” Astronomy & Astrophysics, 639, A103, Jul 2020.
M. D. Stritzinger, F. Taddia, S. Holmbo, E. Baron, C. Contreras, E. Karamehmetoglu, M. M. Phillips, J. Sollerman, N. B. Suntzeff, J. Vinko, C. Ashall, C. Avila, C. R. Burns, A. Campillay, S. Castellon, G. Folatelli, L. Galbany, P. Hoeflich, E. Y. Hsiao, G. H. Marion, N. Morrell, and J. C. Wheeler. “The Carnegie Supernova Project II. Early observations and progenitor constraints of the Type Ib supernova LSQ13abf.” Astronomy & Astrophysics, 634, A21, Jan 2020.
C. Ashall, P. Hoeflich, E. Y. Hsiao, M. M. Phillips, M. Stritzinger, E. Baron, A. L. Piro, C. Burns, C. Contreras, S. Davis, L. Galbany, S. Holmbo, R. P. Kirshner, K. Krisciunas, G. H. Marion, N. Morrell, D. J. Sand, M. Shahbandeh, N. B. Suntzeff, and F. Taddia. “A Physical Basis for the H-band Blue-edge Velocity and Light-curve Shape Correlation in Context of Type Ia Supernova Explosion Physics.” The Astrophysical Journal, 878(2), 86, Jun 2019.
C. Ashall, E. Y. Hsiao, P. Hoeflich, M. Stritzinger, M. M. Phillips, N. Morrell, S. Davis, E. Baron, A. L. Piro, C. Burns, C. Contreras, L. Galbany, S. Holmbo, R. P. Kirshner, K. Krisciunas, G. H. Marion, D. J. Sand, M. Shahbandeh, N. B. Suntzeff, and F. Taddia. “Carnegie Supernova Project-II: Using Near-infrared Spectroscopy to Determine the Location of the Outer 56Ni in Type Ia Supernovae.” The Astrophysical Journal, 875(2), L14, Apr 2019.
M. M. Phillips, et al. “Carnegie Supernova Project-II: Extending the Near-infrared Hubble Diagram for Type Ia Supernovae to z \(\sim\) 0.1.” Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 131(995), 014001, Nov 2018.
Christopher R. Burns, et al. “The Carnegie Supernova Project: Absolute Calibration and the Hubble Constant.” The Astrophysical Journal, 869(1), 56, Dec 2018.
