Dr. Holtzman has interests in the fields of stellar populations, the structure
of galaxies, and cosmology. He is an experienced user of the Hubble Space
Telescope, and participated as a member of the Instrument Definition Teams for
the WF/PC and WFPC2 cameras, and is a member of the Science Oversight
Committee for the planned WFC3 camera. He studies the history of galaxy
assembly of nearby galaxies by deriving star formation histories based on the
distribution of stars in color-magnitude diagrams. He is also working on
incorporating observed chemical abundances in an attempt to derive a
self-consistent model of the star formation and chemical evolution history of
nearby galaxies. He also works on more distant galaxies, attempting to
understand the mechanisms of spiral galaxy formation through studies of their
structure and integrated stellar populations. He has also worked on young,
massive, compact clusters in external galaxies.
Dr. Holtzman is currently actively involved in the SDSS-II supernova survey.
Dr. Holtzman also has interests in observational techniques and
instrumentation. He is the Instrument Scientist for the ARC 3.5m Telescope
and is responsible for the operation of the NMSU 1.0m Telescope at Apache
Point Observatory.
Fourth-year graduate student Roberto Avila is working with Dr. Holtzman on modeling
stellar populations in the nearby galaxy M33 with images taken with the
Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope.
Dr. Holtzman teaches both undergraduate and graduate classes. At the
undergraduate level, he is a popular teacher for Introductory Astronomy (ASTR 110). At the graduate level,
he has been teaching the Observational Techniques (ASTR 535) class for first year graduate students, and a
class on Galaxies (ASTR 616) for
upper level students.
In Fall 2006, he is leading a seminar on The
Science Behind the SDSS-II Supernova Survey.
Selected Publications...
The Local Group Stellar Populations Archive From The Hubble Space Telescope
Wide Field Planetary Camera 2
Holtzman, J.A., Afonso, C., & Dolphin A., ApJS, (2006)
The Properties of Galaxies in Voids
Patiri, S., Prada, F., Holtzman, J.A., Klypin, A., & Betancourt-Rijo, J.,
MNRAS (2006)
Stellar Populations in Bulges of Spiral Galaxies
Moorthy, B. & Holtzman, J.A., MNRAS 371, 583 (2006)
Structure of Disk
Dominated Galaxies I. Bulge/Disk Parameters, Simulations, and Secular
Evolution
MacArthur, L.A., Courteau, S., & Holtzman, J. A. 2003, ApJ, 584, 931
Population Gradients in Local Group Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies
Harbeck, D., Grebel, E.K., Holtzman, J.A., Guhathakura, P., Brandner, W.,
Geisler, D., Sarajedini, A., Dolphin, A., Hurley-Keller, D., & Mateo, M. 2001,
AJ, 122, 3092
Stellar Populations
in the Phoenix Dwarf (dIrr/dSph) Galaxy as Observed by HST/WFPC2
Holtzman, J.A., Smith, G.H., & Grillmair, C. 2000, AJ, 120, 3060
