Physics & Astronomy

College of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Mike Brotherton

Originally from the St. Louis area, he got his PhD in astronomy from the University of Texas in 1996, and held positions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Kitt Peak National Observatory before coming to Laramie.  His specialty is studying the supermassive black holes in the centers of  galaxies and how they shine when in the active phase.  He is also interested in the relationship between such active galactic nuclei (AGN) and their host galaxies, and their mutual evolution.  His work is primarily observational, and he uses a wide assortment of telescopes/observatories operating across the electromagnetic spectrum including WIRO, McDonald, IRTF, KPNO, Lick, Keck, Gemini, the VLT, Hubble, Chandra, and the VLA.  He also makes use of data archives such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.  In addition to being a scientist, he is a science fiction writer, author of the well-received science fiction novels Star Dragon (2003) and Spider Star (2008) from Tor Books.  He is also the founder of the NASA-funded Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop for Writers, which brings a dozen award-winning professional writers to Wyoming every summer.

http://physics.uwyo.edu/~mbrother/index.htm