9813041 Pando The International Research Fellow Awards Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty- four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twelve-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Jesus Pando to work with Dr. Alain Blanchard at the University of Strasbourg, Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg in France. They will study the cosmological structure formation using a wavelet transform technique. Measuring these structures will help to determine the initial seeds and exact mechanisms that led to large-scale structure formation in the universe. The primary focus will be the study of correlations in the Cosmic Microwave Background and in the absorption spectra. They will analyze both data sets to determine if there is Non-Gaussian (abnormal) behavior in these distributions by using the moment spectra and to determine if there is hierarchical structure by using the scale-scale correlation functions. Wavelet transformation as a tool is at the forefront of modern scientific analytical methods. It can be used not just for cosmology studies, but also those of biological systems, for pattern recognition in experimental particle physics or for any problem where space-scale correlations exist. For Dr. Pando to be at Strasbourg is to place him in the center of wavelet research. ***
