Research Profile:
Luis received his PhD in astrophysics from the University of the
Witwatersrand in 1973. Since 1974 he has worked at the South African
Astronomical Observatory as an astrophysicist specializing in pulsating and
Be stars. He is also IT manager for SAAO and spends much time developing
software for astronomical instrumentation and data reduction. Most
recently, he has been working on instrument packages for the new South
African Large Telescope (SALT).
Luis is well known in the field of pulsating stars, particularly the hot
variables and has many publications in that field. He developed a theory
for determining the mode of pulsation from measurements of the Doppler
effect on the shapes of spectral lines. He is also interested in
the enigmatic Be stars. These are very hot stars which for some unknown
reason expel matter at sporadic intervals. He is of the opinion that the
mechanism is magnetic in nature. He is principal editor of two conference
proceedings dealing with this topic.
Selected Publications:
- Balona, L.A., Hendrichs, H.F. & Le Contel, J.M. 1993. Pulsation, rotation
and mass loss in early-type stars. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht. - Balona, L.A., Hendrichs, H.F. & Medupe, R. 2003. Magnetic fields in O, B
and A stars. ASP Conference series, Vol 305. - Balona, L.A. 1987. Mode identification from line profile variations.
Monthly Notices of the Royal astr. Soc., 224, 41 - Balona, L.A. 1990. Short period variability in Be stars. Monthly Notices
of the Royal astr. Soc., 245, 92.