Linda S. Sparke, Professor of Astronomy

Ph.D., University of California-Berkeley, 1981

6269 Chamberlin Hall (knock three times and give the password: F = G m₁ m₂/ r²)
e-mail sparke_at_astro.wisc.edu; phone 608-262-0309; fax 608-263-6386
snail-mail: Washburn Observatory, 475 N. Charter Street, Madison WI 53706

I am currently on leave, working in the Astrophysics division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. My phone number there is 202-358-3096.

My astronomical research interests are in the structure and dynamics of galaxies, including observation and modelling of warped disk galaxies and of polar rings around galaxies; dynamical models for bars in spiral galaxies. Since gravity is scale-free, I sometimes indulge in studies of circumstellar and circumbinary disks in eccentric stellar binaries.

Click here for pdf files describing my postdoc and student advisees and a vita (July 2008)

Galaxies in the Universe: An Introduction (Sparke & Gallagher)

This upper-level undergraduate textbook was first published in October 2000 by Cambridge University Press. The Second Edition was published in February 2007.
Click here for the Table of Contents and Errata for both editions, and diagrams for the second edition in a form suitable for powerpoint presentations.

Class web pages:

Fall 2006: Astronomy 103 'Stars and Galaxies'

Spring 2006: Astronomy 730 'Galaxies'

Local astronomy links:

UW Astronomy home page

Astronomy Department Colloquia

Southern African Large Telescope (SALT)

Space Place (public outreach)

Astronomy database links:

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) Abstract Service

NED Extragalactic database: search by name

INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMY MEETINGS

Searchable electronic ApJ