Sam P Vaughan
Papers
2
Total Citations
24
H-Index
2
About
Sam P Vaughan is an instrumental astronomer at the forefront of large-scale galaxy surveys, specialising in the design and construction of integral field spectrographs (IFS). His primary research focus is developing advanced fibre-optic instrumentation to map the internal motions and chemical compositions of thousands of nearby galaxies. Vaughan’s major contribution is his central role in creating **Hector**, a multi-object IFS for the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). Building on the success of the SAMI instrument, Hector employs high fill-factor imaging fibre bundles called ‘hexabundles’ to simultaneously capture spectra from dozens of galaxies. Vaughan led the instrument’s performance verification and commissioning in 2022, and his work has enabled the Hector Survey, which began in 2023 to observe 15,000 galaxies. His most cited paper (19 citations) introduces the Hector instrument concept, while a later paper (5 citations) documents its on-sky performance. Vaughan’s work is pivotal in transitioning IFS surveys from hundreds to thousands of galaxies, providing the community with a transformative dataset for understanding galaxy evolution in the local universe.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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