Campus Directory

Division Physical & Biological Sciences Division

Department/College/Unit UC Observatories

Title Staff Astronomer

Affiliation Staff

Staff Type Academic

Web Site

Primary Office Location Mount Hamilton Lab & Measure Building
241

Additional Location(s) UCO/Lick Observatory
Mount Hamilton
Available via radio

Mail Stop UCO / Lick Observatory

Biography, Education and Training

Paul Lynam is a resident astronomer at Lick Observatory, a multi-campus research unit of the University of California, providing state-of-the-art research facilities. Opened in 1888 as part of the legacy of James Lick, the world's first high altitude astronomical observatory overlooks San Francisco Bay from the (4200 ft / 1280 m) summit of Mount Hamilton, East of San Jose. University of California Observatories (UCO) administrative headquarters are based at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) campus.

An amateur astronomer since childhood, undergraduate studies of physics with astronomy at the University of Central Lancashire (UK) were followed in 1995 by research and thesis leading to a masters degree in physics at the University of Kent at Canterbury (UK). In 2000, a Ph.D. in astrophysics was awarded by Liverpool John Moores University (UK). A three year stipend was then spent at the Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (Germany) before a move to the headquarters of the European Southern Observatory (ESO, Germany). A Chile-based ESO fellowship, including supporting operations of the world's most advanced ground-based observatory, the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Cerro Paranal followed between 2004 and 2008. Duty continued as an operations astronomer at Paranal in 2009 and 2010.

In 2011 Paul Lynam joined Lick Observatory, bringing over five years (500+ nights) of observatory experience and a working familiarity with many modern astronomical techniques - some of which have been deployed during 100+ nights as a visiting research astronomer, attending other leading observatories, e.g. Mauna Kea (US), La Palma (Spain), La Silla (Chile), South African Astronomical Observatory (South Africa). Research activity is mainly extragalactic, exploring properties of giant galaxies, clusters of galaxies, large-scale structure of the Universe and 'cosmic flows'.

A regular contributor to teaching and public outreach activities, Paul Lynam is a Member of the Institute of Physics (IoP) and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS).