معرفی
Professor Giles Novak is a faculty member at Northwestern University's Department of Physics and Astronomy within the Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences. He serves as the Faculty Director of the Northwestern University Research Shop. His research focuses on observational astrophysics and astronomical instrumentation, with a specialization in star and planet formation mechanisms. He holds a PhD from the University of Chicago (1988).
His research group actively contributes to three major instrumentation projects: TolTEC (Large Millimeter Telescope), HAWC+ (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy), and BLAST (balloon-borne telescopes). These projects aim to study magnetic fields, molecular cloud dynamics, and the physical processes governing star/planet formation rates and disk properties.
Notable awards include the NSF Early Career Development Award (1997) and multiple teaching recognitions. His work bridges instrumentation development (e.g., polarization modulators) with fundamental astrophysical questions, such as how magnetic fields influence star formation efficiency and protostellar disk formation.
- Education: PhD in Physics, University of Chicago, 1988
Research interests emphasize the interplay between magnetic fields and gravitational collapse in star-forming regions, as well as the design of advanced detectors for submillimeter/infrared astronomy. Recent publications focus on polarimetric observations of protostellar systems and molecular clouds.
- Awards: Student Government Honor Roll (2013, 2015), Excellence in Mentoring (2012)
Professor Novak oversees the Novak Group, which collaborates on international projects like BLAST-TNG and HAWC+. His research also includes interdisciplinary art/science collaborations, such as the "Sun Tunnel" project.
