Roberto Abraham, FRSC (born 12 Apr 1965,

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

, Philippines) is a Canadian astronomer and is Professor of

Astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

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, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

in 1987 and a PhD from

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

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, in Saanich, British Columbia, was completed in 1918 by the Canadian government. The Dominion architect responsible for the building was Edgar Lewis Horwood. The main instrumen ...

, 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 a ...

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 the branch of statistics that is not based solely on parametrized families of probability distributions (common examples of parameters are the mean and variance). Nonparametric statistics is based on either being distr ...

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 fa ...

, 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 simultaneous increase in f ...

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 w ...

. 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 extragalacti ...

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; french: link=yes, La Société Canadienne d'Astronomie) is a Canadian society of professional astronomers, founded in 1971 and incorporated in 1983. The society is devoted to the promotion and advanceme ...

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 which conducts infrared astronomy. As the largest optical telescope in space, its high resolution and sensitivity allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Spa ...

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

Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ci ...

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 * Dorothy J. Killam (1900–1965), Canadian philanthropist * Eva Ki ...

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 alumni Filipino emigrants to Canada {{astronomer-stub