Galaxy Evolution at z=0 and Beyond

Kannappan博士被授予NSF天文学和天体物理学博士后奖学金，在德克萨斯大学开展一项研究和教育计划。尽管星系形成的分层理论取得了成功，但在我们对盘形成、凸起-盘连接和质量组装过程的理解中，仍然存在根本的差距。卡纳潘博士将在三个领域开展一项观测研究计划：(1)直接探测末世凸起增长和星系黑洞增长，目的是验证共同进化假说；(2)直接探测附近盘星系的气体和恒星盘形成；(3)分析低红移和高红移星系的动力学标度关系，以研究恒星形成历史、暗物质和重子物质分布，以及光晕星系速度函数的演化。Kannappan还将管理一个由三部分组成的教育和推广计划，在该计划中，她将：(1)创建新的以银河系为主题的活动，以满足德克萨斯州科学标准中的天文要求，并访问当地学校测试这些活动；(2)为StarDate杂志撰写一篇《科学在行动》系列文章；以及(3)设计并指导一个学生研究项目。

Dr. Kannappan is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the University of Texas. Despite the success of hierarchical theories of galaxy formation, fundamental gaps remain in our understanding of disk formation, the bulge-disk connection, and the process of mass assembly. Dr. Kannappan will carry out a program of observational research in three areas: (1) direct detection of late-epoch bulge growth and galactic black hole growth, aimed at testing the hypothesis of co-evolution (2) direct detection of gas and stellar disk formation for a broad sample of nearby disk galaxies, and (3) analysis of dynamical scaling relations for galaxies at low and high redshift to study star formation histories, dark and baryonic matter distributions, and the evolution of the velocity function of galaxy halos.Dr. Kannappan will also manage a three-part education & outreach program in which she will: (1) create new galaxy-themed activities to meet the astronomy requirement in the Texas state science standards and visit local schools to test these activities, (2) write a "Science in Action" article series for StarDate magazine, and (3) design and mentor a student research project.