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I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Astronomy at The Ohio State University. I am also the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

My research interests include the evolution of supermassive black holes, particularly as active galactic nuclei (AGN), instrumentation for telescopes, and the formation and evolution of galaxies. Two key questions I have addressed in my research are how AGN are fueled and the lifetime of AGN. For the last few years I have been studying AGN in clusters of galaxies to determine the differences between AGN in rich and poor environments. My instrumentation work has included the PANIC near-infrared camera for Magellan, the MMIRS near-infrared multi-slit spectrograph for the MMT and Magellan telescopes, and currently the OSMOS and MODS multi-object spectrographs for MDM and LBT, respectively.

Mini Bio

I am originally from the great city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where I graduated from Central High School and Temple University (with a brief stint at the Universität Hamburg).

After college I attended graduate school at The Ohio State University and enjoyed postdoctoral fellowships as a Carnegie Fellow at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and as a Clay Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Here is my Academic Genealogy.

Teaching

Astronomy 161: Introduction to Solar System Astronomy [Winter Quarter 2010]
Astronomy 869: Observational Cosmology and Active Galactic Nuclei [Spring Quarter 2009]
Astronomy 830: Observed Properties of Stars and Galaxies [Autumn Quarter 2008]
Astronomy 890: Astronomical Instrumentation [Spring Quarter 2008]

I also organize the Astronomy Department's Summer Undergraduate Research Program.

Review Articles

Why does Low-Luminosity AGN Fueling Remain an Unsolved Problem?

invited review in "The Interplay among Black Holes, Stars and ISM in Galactic Nuclei," Proc. IAU 222 (Gramado, Brazil), eds. Th. Storchi Bergmann, L.C. Ho, H.R. Schmitt, (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press), 235 [pdf]

QSO Lifetimes

invited review in "Carnegie Observatories Astrophysics Series, Vol. 1: Coevolution of Black Holes and Galaxies," ed. L. C. Ho (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press), 170 [pdf]

Select Recent Publications

The Evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei in Clusters of Galaxies to Redshift 1.3

Paul Martini, Gregory R. Sivakoff, John S. Mulchaey, 2009, ApJ, 701, 66

The Lifetime of FRIIs in Groups and Clusters: Implications for Radio-Mode Feedback

Jonathan Bird, Paul Martini, and Christian Kaiser, 2008, ApJ, 676, 147 [pdf]

Spectroscopic Confirmation of a Large AGN Population in Clusters of Galaxies

Paul Martini, Kelson, D.D., Kim, E., Mulchaey, J.S., Athey, A.A. 2006, ApJ, 644, 116 [pdf]

PANIC: A Near-infrared Camera for the Magellan Telescopes

Paul Martini, Persson, S.E., Murphy, D.C., Birk, C., Shectman, S.A., Gunnels, S.M., Koch, E., 2004, Proceedings of the SPIE, Vol. 5492, 1653 [pdf]

A Population of Massive Globular Clusters in NGC 5128

Paul Martini and Ho, L.C. 2004, ApJ, 610, 233 [pdf]

Quasar Clustering and the Lifetime of Quasars

Paul Martini and Weinberg, D.H. 2001, ApJ, 547, 12 [pdf]

PhD Program in Astronomy at the Ohio State University

We offer a unique PhD program with a very strong emphasis on research. Our graduating students have typically authored or co-authored 7-12 refereed journal articles by the time they complete the program, in addition to numerous conference papers and abstracts. Our 1st- and 2nd-year students are already active researchers, publishing papers, attending conferences, giving talks, going on observing runs, and working in the instrument lab. Click here for more information.

Last updated: 5 November 2009