astronomy

Sara Ellison

Sara Ellison is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sara Ellison rather than just read about it. In short: Sara Ellison is an Astronomy Professor at University of Victoria. Her work involves observational extragalactic astronomy, galaxy mergers and evolution, galactic chemistry and active galactic nuclei.

Key takeaways

Sara Ellison belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sara Ellison to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sara Ellison from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sara Ellison is an Astronomy Professor at University of Victoria. Her work involves observational extragalactic astronomy, galaxy mergers and evolution, galactic chemistry and active galactic nuclei.

Background and education Ellison was inspired to study astronomy by a teacher who was also an astronomer. The only student in a physics class in her small, all-girls school, Ellison finished the standard curriculum quickly and spent the remainder of class time discussing astronomy with her teacher. Ellison enrolled in physics and space science at the University of Kent in 1993 and received her MSc degree in physics at this university in 1997. She went on to earn her PhD degree in astronomy from University of Cambridge in 2000. After finishing her graduate studies, she worked as an ESO fellow in Chile for three years, and then joined the faculty of the University of Victoria as an assistant professor in 2003. The same year, she was selected as Canada Research Chair (Tier II), a grant given to extraordinary emerging researchers by the Canadian government. In 2008, she became an associate professor and in 2014 a full professor at the University of Victoria.

Research The main themes of Ellison's research are studying absorption lines in quasar spectra and studying the effects of environment on galaxy evolution. Her quasar work has focused on studying the chemistry of gas along the line-of-sight to quasars such as Damped Lyman-alpha systems and the Lyman-alpha forest. Much of Ellison's most recent work has focused on using close pairs of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to investigate how galaxy interactions affect galaxy evolution.

Personal In addition to her work in astronomy, Ellison has been involved in science outreach since 1992. She appeared on CBC Radio's Quirks & Quarks to answer questions about lunar landing sites. In a 2015 interview with the Vancouver Sun, she spoke about how she got interested in astronomy. Her hobbies include painting on stretched canvas in acrylics. An accomplished amateur athlete, Ellison has a Boston Qualifying marathon time and age group wins in both running and triathlon.

Honours and awards 2021: Canadian Astronomical Society Peter G. Martin Award for mid-career achievement 2020-2022: President, Canadian Astronomical Society 2018-2020: Vice President, Canadian Astronomical Society 2015: Elected member of the Royal Society of Canada's College for New Scholars 2014: Royal Society of Canada Rutherford Memorial medal in physics 2009: Faculty of Science excellence in research award 2007: NSERC Discovery Accelerator grant 2004: Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Ovenden lecturer 2004: American Astronomical Society Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy 2001: Royal Astronomical Society PhD thesis prize (runner-up)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sara Ellison

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sara Ellison claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sara Ellison before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sara Ellison ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sara Ellison

In research: Sara Ellison appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sara Ellison in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sara Ellison is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century Canadian astronomers, 21st-century Canadian women scientists, Academic staff of the University of Victoria, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sara Ellison outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sara Ellison in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sara Ellison means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sara Ellison out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sara Ellison in simple terms?

Sara Ellison is an Astronomy Professor at University of Victoria. Her work involves observational extragalactic astronomy, galaxy mergers and evolution, galactic chemistry and active galactic nuclei.

Why does Sara Ellison matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sara Ellison?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sara Ellison.