Dr Alexander Scholz

Dr Alexander Scholz

Director of the University Observatory and Reader

Phone
+44 (0)1334 46 1668
Email
as110@st-andrews.ac.uk

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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.听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听Capela

Selected publications

  • Open access
    do Brito do Vale, A. R. G., Mu啪i膰, K., Bouy, H., Almendros-Abad, V., Bayo, A., Capela, D., Scholz, A., Bik, A., Su谩rez, G., Cieza, L., Pe帽a Ram铆rez, K., Bertin, E. & Sch枚del, R., 17 Feb 2026, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Astronomy & Astrophysics. 706, p. A149

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Open access
    Pavlidou, T., Scholz, A. & Muzic, K., 1 Mar 2026, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 546, 3, 12 p., stag160.

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Open access
    Flagg, L., Scholz, A., Almendros-Abad, V., Jayawardhana, R., Damian, B., Mu啪i膰, K., Natta, A., Pinilla, P. & Testi, L., 20 Jun 2025, In: Astrophysical Journal. 986, 2, 6 p., 200.

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Open access
    Almendros-Abad, V., Scholz, A., Damian, B., Jayawardhana, R., Bayo, A., Flagg, L., Mu啪i膰, K., Natta, A., Pinilla, P. & Testi, L., 10 Oct 2025, In: Astrophysical Journal Letters. 992, 1, 7 p., L2.

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Open access
    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 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Open access
    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 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Open access
    Damian, B., Scholz, A., Jayawardhana, R., Almendros-Abad, V., Flagg, L., Mu啪i膰, K., Natta, A., Pinilla, P. & Testi, L., 1 Aug 2025, In: Astronomical Journal. 170, 2, 11 p., 127.

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Open access
    Pe帽a, C. C., Lee, J.-E., Herczeg, G., Johnstone, D., 脕brah谩m, P., Antoniucci, S., Audard, M., Ashraf, M., Baek, G., Garatti, A. C. O., Carvalho, A., Cieza, L., de Miera, F.C.-S., Eisl枚ffel, J., Froebrich, D., Giannini, T., Green, J., Ghosh, A., Guo, Z. & Hillenbrand, L. & 22 others, Hodapp, K., Jheonn, H., Jose, J., Kim, Y.-J., K贸sp谩l, 脕., Lee, H.-G., Lucas, P. W., Magakian, T., Nagy, Z., Naylor, T., Ninan, J. P., Peneva, S., Reipurth, B., Scholz, A., Semkov, E., Sicilia-Aguilar, A., Singh, K., Siwak, M., Stecklum, B., Szab贸, Z. M., Wolf, V. & Yoon, S.-Y., 29 Sept 2025, In: Journal of the Korean Astronomical Society. 58, 2, p. 209-230 22 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Open access
    Mu啪i膰, K., Almendros-Abad, V., Baptista, A., Scholz, A., Capela, D., Pearson, S., Damian, B., doBrito-DoVale, A., Rom, T. & Jayawardhana, R., Sept 2025, In: Astronomy & Astrophysics. 701, 13 p., A147.

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Open access
    Herbert, C., Froebrich, D., Vanaverbeke, S., Scholz, A., Eisl枚ffel, J., Urtly, T., Walton, I. L., Wiersema, K., Quinn, N. J., Piehler, G., Aimar, M. M., Garc铆a, R. C., Vanmunster, T., Alfaro, F. C. S., de la Cuesta, F. G., Licchelli, D., Perez, A. E., Ma帽anes, E. F., Ribes, N. G. & Gonz谩lez, J. L. S. & 28 others, Futcher, S. R. L., Nelson, T., Dvorak, S., Mo藕dzierski, D., Kotysz, K., Miko艂ajczyk, P., Fleming, G., Phillips, M., Vale, T., Dubois, F., Eggenstein, H.-B., Heald, M. A., Lewin, P., OKeeffe, D., Popowicz, A., Bernacki, K., Malcher, A., Lasota, S., Fiolka, J., Dustor, A., Percy, S. C., Devine, P., Patel, A. L., Dickers, M. D., Dover, L., Grozdanova, I. I., Urquhart, J. S. & Lynch, C. J. R., 4 Apr 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 529, 4

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

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