George Chartas
Professor
FACULTY PAGE
Dr. Chartas’ faculty page, including information about his research, courses, and professional activities, is available at:
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON OBSERVATORY
Dr. Chartas is the Director of the College of Charleston Observatory and maintains the Observatory website. Learn more about the observatory, its facilities, research, and educational programs at:
College of Charleston Observatory
EDUCATION
B.Sc., Physics, University of Patras, Greece
Ph.D., Physics, University of Wisconsin–Madison
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Dr. Chartas’ research focuses on supermassive black holes, active galactic nuclei (AGN), quasars, and the powerful outflows they produce. His research combines observations across the electromagnetic spectrum with theoretical modeling to investigate the physics of accretion onto supermassive black holes and the impact of AGN on their surrounding galaxies and intergalactic environment.
His research interests include:
- Quasar outflows and AGN feedback: Investigating high-velocity outflows from quasars and their role in transporting energy and momentum into the interstellar and intergalactic medium, potentially influencing the evolution of galaxies and the coevolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies.
- Accretion disks and strong-gravity environments: Using gravitational microlensing and modeling of relativistically broadened Fe Kα emission to probe the structure of accretion disks and the spacetime geometry in the vicinity of supermassive black holes.
- Active galactic nuclei: Investigating the physical properties, evolution, and observational characteristics of AGN across a broad range of wavelengths.
- High-velocity narrow absorption-line quasars: Studying narrow absorption-line (NAL) quasars with high-velocity outflows to investigate their physical properties and test models for the origin of these unusual quasar populations.
- Gravitational lensing and cosmology: Using gravitationally lensed quasars to study the properties of distant galaxies and quasars and to constrain cosmological parameters.
Dr. Chartas’ research draws on observations from major space- and ground-based observatories, including X-ray, optical, infrared, and radio telescopes, as well as numerical and analytical modeling.
PUBLICATIONS
A complete list of Dr. Chartas’ publications and citations is available through NASA’s Astrophysics Data System:
Dr. Chartas’ publications in NASA ADS
RESEARCH FUNDING & AWARDS
Dr. Chartas has served as Principal Investigator on more than $2 million in externally funded research, including support from NASA for programs involving the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, Suzaku, and Swift, as well as NASA’s Astrophysics Data Analysis Program.
He has also served as Principal Investigator on an approved Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)observing program in Cycle 5 (2017), “Magnified Views of the Molecular Gas of the z = 1.51 Lensed Quasar HS0810.”
In 2015, Dr. Chartas received the College-Wide Distinguished Research Award from the College of Charleston.
In 2015, he received the Gordon E. Jones Distinguished Achievement Award from the College of Charleston.