Jakob Bak
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA
Tel: (740) 593-1701. Fax: (740) 593-0433.
E-mail: bak@jeans.phy.ohiou.edu. URL: http://www.phy.ohiou.edu/~bak/.
Work Permissions: EU and USA
Education
* Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
Doctor of Philosophy in Physics, March 2000
Dissertation: Retrograde Minor Mergers and Counter Rotating Cores
* Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Bachelors of Arts in Physics and Economics (double major), May 1993
Work Experience
Ohio University, Athens, OH, USA
1995-present Research Assistant
Simulated the formation of counter rotating cores in galaxies
* Determined that satellite accretion is unlikely to form counter rotating cores
* Wrote and ran original research code on single and multiprocessor supercomputers.
* Developed extensive analytical tools now in use by other researchers
Calculated the 3D shape distribution of elliptical galaxies
* Determined that elliptical galaxies are rarely triaxial
* Implemented Monte Carlo integration methods to determine elliptical galaxy shapes
* Developed an iterative Bayesian statistical method to combine likelihood distributions
Published multiple papers in both refereed and non-refereed papers (list available)
Presented research at conferences worldwide (list available)
1994-1995 Teaching Assistant
Taught undergraduate physics laboratory classes ranging in size from 10-15 students
Graded homework for graduate level physics course
Royce Investment Group Inc., Woodbury, NY, USA
1993-1994 Registered Representative,
Extensive training in securities trading
Assisted in bringing two companies public
Selected Publications (complete publication list available)
Bak, J. & Statler, T. S. 2000, " The Intrinsic Shape Distribution of a Sample of Elliptical Galaxies ", Accepted by Astronomical Journal for publication in July 2000.
Bak, Jakob 1999, "Counter Rotating Cores Formed by Sinking Satellite Galaxies " in Galaxy Dynamics, D. R. Merritt, M. Valluri, and J. A. Sellwood, eds. (San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific).
Bak, J., Statler, T. S. 1997, " The Distribution of Elliptical Galaxy Shapes" in The Second Stromlo Symposium: The nature of Elliptical Galaxies, M. Arnaboldi, G. S. Da Costa, and P. Saha, eds. (San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific).
Skills
Computer: Programming (Fortran and C/++), Parallel Computing (HPF and MPI), Unix, Linux, HTML, Java, Shell script, General office software (MS Word, Excel, etc)
Financial: Working knowledge of Equities Trading, and some knowledge of Derivatives Pricing Theory and Portfolio Management
Languages: Fluent in English and Danish, some French
Professional Memberships
Sigma Xi
AAS (American astronomical Society)
-Awarded stipend to present research at 1999 Division of Dynamical Astronomy meeting