Chris Sneden

Dr. Sneden studied astronomy at Haverford College, a small Quaker college in Pennsylvania, and the oldest institution of higher learning in North America. Today, it's a leading liberal arts college. He recieved his Bachelor's degree in 1969. Dr. Sneden then traveled south to Texas where he worked as a graduate student for astronomer David Lambert who was, then, a fresh new faculty member at The University of Texas. Chris was David's first graduate student and he says that "two or three people after me said that they paid for my sins. He made them work a lot harder." However, Chris obviously worked hard because he left Texas for a string of prestigious positions. He went to Indiana as a postdoctoral researcher for a year and, then, to Santa Cruz, California as a research astronomer and lecturer. For three years, he worked at the University of Wyoming's infrared observatory where he was an assistant professor. Finally, he worked as an assistant professor at The University of Washington before returning to The University of Texas. Dr. Sneden now holds the Rex G. Baker, Jr. Centennial Research Professorship in Astronomy and, recently, led this astronomy department as its chairman. (The current chairman is his former advisor, David Lambert.) Chris is also the editor of the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a special publication of the Astrophysical Journal that features new and exciting discoveries. 

Dr. Sneden's research involves aspects of stellar spectroscopy. Within the past few years, through various collaborations, he has also used spectrographic instrumentation at NOAO Kitt Peak and Cerro Tololo, Keck, Lick, European Southern, Las Campanas, and Hubble Space Telescope Observatories.

Dr. Sneden studies the chemical compositions of stars. Stars generate nearly all elements of the periodic table heavier than hydrogen in their internal fusion cycles (whose primary purpose is to generate energy). The stars return their newly minted heavy elements to the interstellar medium gas clouds at the ends of their lives, either gently in stellar winds, or violently in nova or supernova explosions. Newly forming stars then gather up this enriched gas. So with each succeeding stellar generation the heavy element content builds up in the Galaxy.

He has concentrated on spectroscopic studies of old stars: either giant stars of the Galactic disk that are nearing the end of their lives, or long-lived stars of the old Galactic halo. Analysis of Galactic halo stars especially intrigues him, for these stars were born near the start of the Galaxy and therefore their chemical compositions hold vital clues to "early Galactic nucleosynthesis", or heavy element generation at the beginning of our Galaxy.