Richard A. Wade
Ph.D. in Astronomy, California Inst. of Technology, 1981
Contact Information:
Office: 515 Davey Lab
Mailing Address: 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802
Phone: (814) 863-6039
FAX: (814) 863-3399
email: wade(at)astro.psu.edu
Office Hours: Mon 4:00-5:00, Th 2:30-3:30, or by appointment
Fall 2009 Course:
Astro 501, Fundamental Astronomy, MWF 2:30-3:20
The figure on the right compares the brightnesses and spectra of DA white
dwarfs with cool main sequence stars.
Astronomical phenomena during Fall 2009
Research Interests:
Advanced stages of stellar evolution
involving white dwarf stars and hot subdwarf stars and their
interactions in binary systems. Binary population
synthesis. Observations and models of accretion disks in cataclysmic
variable systems. Click here to see the
evolution of effective temperature for a dwarf nova's accretion disk
(data courtesy John Cannizzo).
Interesting Note:
There are at least three Richard Wades with significant
interests in astronomy. "Number 2" is R. A. Wade in England at the
Rutherford Appleton Labs. (When I met him in 1982,
we didn't annihilate.) "Number 3" is Richard Peter Wade,
an independent archaeologist in South Africa, who has been
studying the Great Zimbabwe ruins from an astronomical angle.
Last updated 2009 August 28
Web page by Richard Wade (wade(at)astro.psu.edu)
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Penn State University