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Suresh Sivanandam studies the formation and evolution of galaxies in both the nearby and distant Universe.
One focus of his research is a cluster’s halo of gas and how it interacts with the gas in individual galaxies through the use of multi-wavelength (X-ray, optical, and infrared) datasets. Another is a spectroscopic survey of nearby galaxies to determine and how star formation impacted when these galaxies were formed. The survey will be conducted with a unique instrument Sivanandam and his collaborators have constructed: the Wide Integral-Field Infrared Spectrograph, or WIFIS, currently operating on the 2.3-metre Bok telescope at the Steward Observatory in Arizona.
In addition to WIFIS, Sivanandam is a key member in many projects that are focusing advancing instrumentation in adaptive optics and highly multiplexed spectroscopy (e.g. integral field spectroscopy) For example, he is leading the development of the Gemini Infrared Multi-Object Spectrograph, or GIRMOS, an infrared spectrograph for the Gemini Observatory, designed to produce high angular-resolution and highly sensitive spectra of the sky. GIRMOS’s primary science goal is to survey the distant universe in order to study the assembly of mass in high-redshift galaxies.
Sivanandam became an Assistant Professor at the Dunlap Institute in 2015 and was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2021, and to Interim Director in 2023.
Research:
In September 2017, Sivanandam was interviewed about the role Dunlap and U of T played in advancing his career.
