Dr Alexander Scholz
Director of the University Observatory and Reader
Teaching
My teaching is focused on observational and introductory astrophysics. I am module coordinator and lecturer in first year astrophysics. I also coordinate the observational components of the MSc program in astrophysics. I provide observing training at our local telescopes for postgraduate and undergraduate students. In addition, I teach introductory astronomy for non-science students.
Research areas
I am an observational astronomer working on problems in star and planet formation. Since 2006 I am leading the project SONYC, which conducts unbiased extremely deep imaging and spectroscopy surveys of nearby star forming regions, with the goal to find all young brown dwarfs and free-floating planetary mass objects. This project will continue in the next years with new facilities like James Webb Space Telescope and with Gaia. I analyse accretion and disks of young sources, with the goal to constrain formation scenarios for stars, brown dwarfs and planets. Using time-domain observations, I study rotation, surface properties, and the dynamical environments of young stellar and substellar objects. I am working with 8-m telescopes like the ESO/VLT and Subaru, with space telescopes like Spitzer and Kepler, with submm facilities like ALMA and SMA, with the robotic 1-m telescoes of the Las Cumbres Observatory, and with our local James Gregory Telescope, the largest telescope in Scotland.
PhD supervision
- Daniel Capela
Selected publications
-
Detection of Hydrocarbons in the Disk around an Actively-Accreting Planetary-Mass Object
Flagg, L., Scholz, A., Almendros-Abad, V., Jayawardhana, R., Damian, B., Muzic, K., Natta, A., Pinilla, P. & Testi, L., 1 May 2025, In: Astrophysical Journal.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Discovery of an Accretion Burst in a Free-Floating Planetary-Mass Object
Almendros-Abad, V., Scholz, A., Damian, B., Jayawardhana, R., Bayo, A., Flagg, L., Muzic, K., Natta, A., Pinilla, P. & Testi, L., 1 Oct 2025, In: Astrophysical Journal.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
Disks around young free-floating planetary-mass objects: ultradeep Spitzer imaging of IC348
Seo, H. H. & Scholz, A., 1 Mar 2025, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 537, 3, p. 2579-2585 7 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
Hubble's Variable Nebula I: ripples on a big screen
Lightfoot, J. & Scholz, A., 1 Jun 2025, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 540, 1, p. 52-59 8 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Spectroscopy of Free-Floating Planetary-Mass Objects and their disks with JWST
Damian, B., Scholz, A., Jayawardhana, R., Almendros-Abad, V., Flagg, L., Mužić, K., Natta, A., Pinilla, P. & Testi, L., 1 Jul 2025, In: Astronomical Journal.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
The Outbursting YSOs Catalogue (OYCAT)
Peña, C. C., Lee, J. E., Herczeg, G., Johnstone, D., Ábrahám, P., Antoniucci, S., Audard, M., Ashraf, M., Baek, G., Garatti, A. C. O., Carvalho, A., Cieza, L., de Miera, F. C. S., Eislöffel, J., Froebrich, D., Giannini, T., Green, J., Ghosh, A., Guo, Z. & Hillenbrand, L. & 22 others, , Jun 2025, In: Journal of the Korean Astronomical Society. 58, 2, p. 209-230 22 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
The substellar population in Corona Australis
Mužić, K., Almendros-Abad, V., Baptista, A., Scholz, A., Capela, D., Pearson, S., Damian, B., doBrito-DoVale, A., Rom, T. & Jayawardhana, R., 1 Sept 2025, In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. 701, A147.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
A survey for variable young stars with small telescopes: IX - evolution of spot properties on YSOs in IC 5070
Herbert, C., Froebrich, D., Vanaverbeke, S., Scholz, A., Eislöffel, J., Urtly, T., Walton, I. L., Wiersema, K., Quinn, N. J., Piehler, G., Aimar, M. M., García, R. C., Vanmunster, T., Alfaro, F. C. S., de la Cuesta, F. G., Licchelli, D., Perez, A. E., Mañanes, E. F., Ribes, N. G. & González, J. L. S. & 28 others, , 4 Apr 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 529, 4Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
A survey for variable young stars with small telescopes – VIII. Properties of 1687 Gaia selected members in 21 nearby clusters
Froebrich, D., Scholz, A., Campbell-White, J., Vanaverbeke, S., Herbert, C., Eislöffel, J., Urtly, T., Long, T. P., Walton, I. L., Wiersema, K., Quinn, N. J., Rodda, T., González-Carballo, J.-L., Morales Aimar, M., Castillo García, R., Soldán Alfaro, F. C., García de la Cuesta, F., Licchelli, D., Escartin Perez, A. & Salto González, J. L. & 43 others, , Apr 2024, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 529, 2, p. 1283-1298 16 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
Evolution of the relation between the mass accretion rate and the stellar and disk mass from brown dwarfs to stars
Almendros-Abad, V., Manara, C. F., Testi, L., Natta, A., Claes, R. A. B., Mužić, K., Sanchis, E., Alcalá, J. M., Bayo, A. & Scholz, A., 1 May 2024, In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. 685, A118.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review