UNDER CONSTRUCTION

I am currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Physics at the University of Notre Dame. My research centers around the diversity of type Ia supernova host galaxies, and the role, if any, the systematic changes in SN parameters can be attributed to this diversity. I have, and continue to study the systematic effects of SN environment on the luminosities of SNe Type Ia. We have completed a study that looked at the effect a host galaxy's metallicity, star formation rate, star formation history, and luminosity has on the properties of its resident supernova (Gallagher et al. 2005, ApJ, 635, 210G). Such errors could compromise current measurements of cosmological parameters that suggest our universe is in a state of has been excepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. The paper can be downloaded An extention of the project involving elliptical galaxies will enable use to break the age-metallicity degeneracy using the models of Worthey et al. (1994). The optical spectra of our elliptical host galaxy sample can be viewed from the left in pdf format.