Roberto Abraham, FRSC (born 12 Apr 1965) is a Canadian astronomer and is Professor of

Astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

and a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Canada judges to have "made remarkable contributions in the arts, the humanities and the sciences, as well as in Canadian public life" ...

Education

Abraham received a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

in 1987 and a PhD from

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

in 1992, working under the supervision of Ian M. McHardy and Roger Davies. He did post-doctoral work at the

Dominion Astrophysical Observatory The Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, located on Observatory Hill (Saanich), Observatory Hill, in Saanich, British Columbia, was completed in 1918 by the Canadian Government, Canadian government. The Dominion architect responsible for the bui ...

, the

Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge The Institute of Astronomy (IoA) is the largest of the three astronomy departments in the University of Cambridge, and one of the largest astronomy sites in the United Kingdom. Around 180 academics, postdocs, visitors and assistant staff work ...

and the

Royal Greenwich Observatory The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in G ...

.Abraham's departmental biography page
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Career

Abraham's career has been notable for his contributions via

non-parametric statistics Nonparametric statistics is a type of statistical analysis that makes minimal assumptions about the underlying distribution of the data being studied. Often these models are infinite-dimensional, rather than finite dimensional, as in parametric s ...

galaxy morphological classification Galaxy morphological classification is a system used by astronomers to divide galaxies into groups based on their visual appearance. There are several schemes in use by which galaxies can be classified according to their morphologies, the most f ...

, especially at high-

redshift In physics, a redshift is an increase in the wavelength, and corresponding decrease in the frequency and photon energy, of electromagnetic radiation (such as light). The opposite change, a decrease in wavelength and increase in frequency and e ...

and early work on the

Hubble Deep Field The Hubble Deep Field (HDF) is an image of a small region in the constellation Ursa Major, constructed from a series of observations by the Hubble Space Telescope. It covers an area about 2.6 arcminutes on a side, about one 24-millionth of the ...

. He was one of the leaders of the "Gemini Deep Deep Survey" which led to several notable results on early galaxies including the evolution of elliptical galaxies and why a lot of them appear so remarkably old. He is currently a co-principal-investigator on the

Dragonfly Telephoto Array The Dragonfly Telephoto Array is a ground-based optical telescope array developed at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics of the University of Toronto in Canada. The array uses a combination of telephoto lenses to observe extragalact ...

telescope, which images ultra-low surface brightness galaxies at visible wavelengths of light. Abraham was the President of the

Canadian Astronomical Society The Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA; ) is a Canadian society of professional astronomers, founded in 1971 and incorporated in 1983. The society is devoted to the promotion and advancement of knowledge of the universe through research and e ...

from 2016 to 2018. He currently serves the astronomical community by participating on the

James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed to conduct infrared astronomy. As the largest telescope in space, it is equipped with high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments, allowing it to view objects too old, Lis ...

Advisory Committee and is Honorary President of the Toronto Centre of the

Royal Astronomical Society of Canada The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) is a national, non-profit, charitable organization devoted to the advancement of astronomy and related sciences. At present, there are 30 local branches of the Society, called Centres, in towns an ...

Awards and recognition

* 2005 – University of Toronto Faculty of Arts & Science Outstanding Teaching Award * 2011 –

P.G. Martin * 2015 –

* 2017 – Canada Council

Killam Killam is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Albert Clements Killam (1849–1908), Canadian lawyer * Amasa Emerson Killam (1834–1922), Canadian politician * Charles Wilson Killam (1871–1961), American architect, engineer ...

Research Fellowship

References

External links

University of Toronto - Prof. Roberto AbrahamGemini Genesis Survey Blog
21st-century Canadian astronomers Canadian cosmologists Academic staff of the University of Toronto 1965 births Living people Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada University of British Columbia Faculty of Science alumni Filipino emigrants to Canada {{astronomer-stub