Dr. Stephen Levine

Dynamics/Astrometry

PhD University of Wisconsin – Madison, 1992

Dr. Levine joined Lowell Observatory’s science staff in 2010. He moved to Lowell from the US Naval Observatory’s Flagstaff Station to lead the commissioning of the Discovery Channel Telescope, now known as the Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT). Commissioning is the process of bringing a new telescope from its construction stage to full science operations. During that period, Levine also served as the Deputy Director for Technology.

With the LDT in full science operations since 2015, Levine transitioned into the role of LDT Scientist. In that position he works with all parties involved with the LDT to make the best use of the facility. He has emphasized working to bring together the scientific users and the engineering and support communities.

Dr. Levine’s primary research interests center around large astrometric surveys and the numerical simulation of the dynamics of astrophysical disk systems, emphasizing  understanding the structure and evolution of lopsided disk and irregular galaxies. He is investigating uses of observations of gravitational microlensing for disentangling astrophysical disk structures. 

Dr. Levine also maintains an active interest in stellar occultation studies of outer solar system objects. He is currently collaborating with Arne Henden of the AAVSO on the construction of the AAVSO Photometric All-Sky Survey (APASS).

Levine built and operates the PMM Image and Catalogue Archive (PICA). PICA hosts one of the few copies of the Precision Measuring Machine’s scans of the photographic Schmidt survey plates that were used for the http://astrometry.mit.edu/picaconstruction of the USNO-A and USNO-B star catalogues.