Matthew Ashby is an Astrophysicist
at the Harvard- Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics. He became a member of the
SWAS mission team
in 1995, and has also been a member of the
IRAC instrument team since 1999. His research interests involve
working to better understand the sources of infrared emission
from galaxies, and modelling the radiative transfer
processes taking place in Galactic star formation complexes.
This work is based on data now being taken by the Spitzer Space
Telescope and other observatories, both ground- and space-based.
Dr. Ashby is leading an effort to characterize star formation in
the local universe (the Star Formation Reference Survey).
He is also involved in a number of Spitzer/IRAC Guaranteed Time
and Guest Observer science projects with a special focus on infrared
observations of galaxies in the nearby and distant Universe.