Charles R. Alcock

About

Professor Charles R. Alcock is the Donald H. Menzel Professor of Astrophysics at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. His research interests include the determination of the composition of cosmic dark matter, innovative surveys of the outer solar system, massive compact halo objects, comets, and asteroids. He was educated at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and at the California Institute of Technology. Throughout his career, he has held positions at the Institute for Advanced Study, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the University of Pennsylvania. He served as the Director of the Center for Astrophysics from 2004 to 2023 and was Acting Undersecretary for Science for the Smithsonian from 2008 to 2009. Professor Alcock has received numerous awards, including the Department of Energy’s Ernest O. Lawrence Award for Physics in 1996 and the Beatrice M. Tinsley Award of the American Astronomical Society in 2000. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2001 and to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2006.

Research topics

• Astrophysics
• Physics
• Quantum mechanics
• Mathematics
• Astronomy
• Nuclear physics
• Computational physics
• Geometry

Selected publications

• Repetitive patterns in rapid optical variations in the nearby black-hole binary V404 Cygni

  Nature · 2016-01-01 · 87 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A REFINED QSO SELECTION METHOD USING DIAGNOSTICS TESTS: 663 QSO CANDIDATES IN THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD

  The Astrophysical Journal · 2012-02-23 · 34 citations

  articleOpen access

  We present 663 QSO candidates in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) selected using multiple diagnostics. We started with a set of 2566 QSO candidates selected using the methodology presented in our previous work based on time variability of the MACHO LMC light curves. We then obtained additional information for the candidates by crossmatching them with the Spitzer SAGE, the Two Micron All Sky Survey, the Chandra,theXMM, and an LMC UBVI catalog. Using this information, we specified six diagnostic f…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• REVISITING THE ROLE OF M31 IN THE DYNAMICAL HISTORY OF THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS

  The Astrophysical Journal · 2009-07-07 · 24 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  We study the dynamics of the Magellanic Clouds in a model for the Local Group whose mass is constrained using the timing argument/two-body limit of the action principle. The goal is to evaluate the role of M31 in generating the high angular momentum orbit of the Clouds, a puzzle that has only been exacerbated by the latest $HST$ proper motion measurements. We study the effects of varying the total Local Group mass, the relative mass of the Milky Way and M31, the proper motion of M31, and the pro…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• SEARCHING FOR SUB-KILOMETER TRANS-NEPTUNIAN OBJECTS USING PAN-STARRS VIDEO MODE LIGHT CURVES: PRELIMINARY STUDY AND EVALUATION USING ENGINEERING DATA

  The Astronomical Journal · 2010-04-08 · 23 citations

  articleOpen access

  We present a pre-survey study of using Pan-STARRS high sampling rate video mode guide star images to search for TNOs. With suitable selection of the guide stars within the Pan-STARRS 7 deg^{2} field of view, the lightcurves of these guide stars can also be used to search for occultations by TNOs. The best target stars for this purpose are stars with high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and small angular size.In order to do this, we compiled a catalog using the SNR calculated from stars with m_V <13…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The TAOS Project: Statistical Analysis of Multi-Telescope Time Series Data

  Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific · 2010-06-29 · 15 citations

  articleOpen access

  The Taiwanese-American Occultation Survey (TAOS) monitors fields of up to ~1000 stars at 5 Hz simultaneously with four small telescopes to detect occultation events from small (~1 km) Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). The survey presents a number of challenges, in particular the fact that the occultation events we are searching for are extremely rare and are typically manifested as slight flux drops for only one or two consecutive time series measurements. We have developed a statistical analysis tech…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Studies of Solar System Planetesimals and Extra-Solar Planets: Occultations and Transits enabled by novel fast CCD cameras

  NSF · $397k · 2004–2009

• SEI: Collaborative Research: Discovering Unexpected Planets and Other Astronomical Oddities

  NSF · $192k · 2007–2011

Frequent coauthors

• C. W. Stubbs

  396 shared

• K. Griest

  Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

  355 shared

• M. R. Pratt

  University of Utah

  284 shared

• D. P. Bennett

  260 shared

• K. C. Freeman

  North Carolina Central University

  257 shared

• M. J. Lehner

  255 shared

• B. A. Peterson

  Mount Stromlo Observatory

  252 shared

• D. R. Alves

  228 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Astronomy

  Harvard University

  1982

• B.A., Physics

  University of California, Berkeley

  1977

Awards & honors

• Department of Energy’s Ernest O. Lawrence Award for Physics…
• Beatrice M. Tinsley Award of the American Astronomical Socie…
• Elected to the National Academy of Sciences (2001)
• Elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2006)

Similar researchers at Harvard University

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• David Charbonneauh-112