The Earliest Generations of Stars and Galaxies in the Universe

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AST-0302148Santos, MichaelDr. Michael Santos will take his Mathematical and Physical Sciences Distinguished International Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. He will study the properties of the first stars and galaxies to form in our universe, more than twelve billion years ago. These primordial precursors of our galaxy and Sun are key in understanding the subsequent assembly of luminous structure in our universe, but are difficult to observe directly. However, the young universe was in some ways a simpler place than what we see now, making it accessible to theoretical studies. His research will focus on many unexplored aspects of how the first galaxies interacted with each other and the universe around them. In particular, he will study the smallest galaxies, because these are both "canaries in the mineshaft," the most sensitive probes of early physical processes, and the direct ancestors of galaxies like our own Milky Way. His research techniques will incorporate analytic and numerical theory, with a clear focus on guiding and interpreting current and future observations. ***