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John F.C. Wardle

Professor of Astrophysics
Ph.D., University of Manchester, England, 1969

John Wardle studies powerful extragalactic radio sources and especially the nuclei of quasars using the Very Large Array and the Very Long Baseline Array of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. He specializes in making polarization observations of quasars to map the magnetic fields near the super-massive black holes at the heart of these objects. Recent results include the first detections of circular polarization at milli-arcsecond resolution, and a new technique for measuring the distance to high redshift quasars. Professor Wardle is a member of the Brandeis Astrophysics group.

Recently Taught Courses

Introductory Astronomy (Phsc 2b)
Modern Physics (Phys 20b)
Astrophysics (Phys 168b)

Recent Ph.D. Students

Doug Gobeille (2011) "A Systematic Meta Survey of High Redshift Quasars Probing their Environments and Evolution" Present Position: Faculty, University of Southern Florida

Michael Bell (2010) "Two-Frequency, Multi-epoch VLA Observations of SS 433" Present Position: Post Doctoral Associate, Max Planck Institute, Garching, Germany

Tingdong Chen (2005) "VLBI and VSOP Study of Two Quasar Jets&rdquo" Present Position: Developer, 1185 Design Inc, Palo Alto, CA

Chi (Teddy) Cheung (2004) "Studies of the Kilo-parsec Scale Radio and Optical Emission from X-ray Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei" Present Position: NRC Research Associate, Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC.

Daniel C. Homan (2000) "Polarization Studies of the Parsec Scale Jets in AGN." Present position: Associate Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Denison University, Granville, OH

Sample of Recent Publications

Roberts, David H.; Wardle, John F. C.; Bell, Michael R.; Mallory, Matthew R.; Marchenko, Valerie V.; Sanderbeck, Phoebe U.
Astrophysical Journal, 719, 1918 (2010)

Wardle, John FC, Dare, Emily A., Cheung, Chi C. "On the Nature of the Microquasar GRS 1915+105: Clues from Radio Polarization
Imaging." _Astrophysical Journal_ (2010). (forthcoming)

Wardle, John FC with D. Homan, M. Lister, H. Aller, M. Aller. "Full Polarization Spectra of 3C 279." _Astrophysical Journal_
(2009).

Wardle, John FC, with Roberts, David H.; Lipnick, Scott L.; Selesnick, Philip L.; Slutsky, Simon;. "Structure and Magnetic
Fields in the Precessing Jet System SS 433. I. Multifrequency Imaging from 1998." _Astrophysical Journal_ 676. (2008): 585-593.

Wardle, John FC with Cheung, C. C.; Stawarz, L.; Siemiginowska, A.; Harris, D. E; Schwartz, D. A.; Gobeille, D.; Lee, N. P.;. "The Highest Redshift Relativistic Jets." Extragalactic Jets: Theory and Observation from Radio to Gamma Ray, Girdwood, Alaska. Eds. T.A. Rector and D.S. De Young, 21-24 May (2007).

Wardle, John FC with Cheung, C. C.; Lee, N. P.. "Large-Scale Radio and X-ray Jets in the Highest Redshift Quasars." _22nd
Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics, Eds. P. Chen et al._ also arXiv:astro-ph/0606256. (2006).