Richard A. D'Souza, S.J.

Astronomer

Area of Research: Galaxy Formation and Evolution

Education:

• BSc Physics, St. Xavier's College, University of Mumbai, India, 2002
• MSc Physics, University of Heidelberg, Germany, 2005
• Bachelors in Philosophy, Jnana Deepa Vidyapeth, Pune, India, 2007
• Bachelors in Theology, Jnana Deepa Vidyapeth, Pune, India, 2011
• Phd in Astronomy, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, 2016

Background:

Fr. Richard D'Souza SJ was born in 1978 in Pune, India. His initial school years were spent in Kuwait. From 1990,

he moved back to his home state of Goa, India and joined a Jesuit school. After finishing his schooling, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1996, and finished his two years noviciate in Belgaum, India. This was followed by a year of study of the humanities (Junior ate) in Pune. In 2002, he completed his graduation in Physics at St.Xaviers' college in Mumbai and proceeded for his Masters in Physics to the University of Heidelberg, where he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy for his thesis work. He returned to Pune in 2005 to complete a Bachelors degree in Philosophy. In 2007, he founded and ran the St. Paul's Community College in Belgaum to help school dropouts find gainful employment. After finishing his Bachelors in Theology in 2011 in Pune, he retuned to Goa and ran a popular theology programme for the laity called "Deepen Your Faith". In 2012, he started his doctoral studies in Astronomy at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, in Garching, Munich, graduating in 2016. In 2016, he joined the staff of the Vatican Observatory.

Reserch Interests:

Fr. Richard D'Souza is interested in studying the formation and evolution of galaxies. In particular, through observations and simulations, he has studied the outer stellar halos of galaxies in order to decipher their accretion histories.

Recent Publications:

• D'Souza, Rix, “Mass estimates from stellar proper motions: the mass of ω Centauri”, 2013, MNRAS, 429, 1887
• Cooper, D'Souza, Kauffmann, Wang, et al. “Galactic accretion and the outer structure of galaxies in the CDM model”, 2013, MNRAS, 434, 3348.
• D'Souza, Kauffman, Wang, Vegetti, “Parametrizing the Stellar Haloes of Galaxies”, 2014, MNRAS, 433, 1433
• D'Souza, Vegetti, Kauffmann, “The Massive End of the Stellar Mass Function”, 2015, MNRAS., 454, 4027