Title: The VIMOS Ultra Deep survey, initial phases of galaxy assembly 10-13Gyr back in the Universe

Speaker: Olivier Le Fèvre (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille )  

Time & Place: Tuesday, 3:00pm, April 22nd , Lecture Hall, 3rd floor  

Abstract: Understanding the first phases of galaxy evolution remains a key goal of modern astrophysics. What are the main processes responsible for the build-up of mass and those driving the star-formation rate ? How does the Hubble sequence build-up? What is the effect of environment in these early epochs?
To answer these questions requires to go beyond the small volumes and small numbers of galaxies observed at epochs earlier than 10 Gyr look-back time, and, importantly to secure the spectroscopic identification of galaxies from large surveys.
I will present the VIMOS Ultra-Deep Survey (VUDS), a large spectroscopic redshift survey with the ESO-VLT. More than 10000 galaxies have been observed, identifying ~5000 galaxies with 2<z<6 and producing the largest sample of galaxies with available today. The first results coming out from this survey will be discussed.

Biog: Prof. Le Fèvre graduated his PhD in 1987 from the Observatory of Paris. He was resident astronomer at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope up to 1994. Back in France he joined the Paris Observatory and moved to the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille in 1997. Prof. Le Fèvre is a world renown expert in observational cosmology and galaxy evolution, leader of the most exquisite surveys of the distant Universe and in the development of instrumentation, in particular in the realm of multi-object spectroscopy. Prof. Le Fèvre is the Principal Investigator of the VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey and VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey, two game changing observing programs which revealed many aspects of our understanding of the distant galaxies.

He has been the director of the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille from 2004 to 2011, and is now holding one of the prestigious European Research Council Advanced Grant. For his work, he was awarded the French CNRS Bronze medal in 1987, the French Science Academy Forthuny price in 1993, and the annual French Astronomical Society price in 1996