Bringing Galaxy Evolution into Focus by Pushing SED Models to the Limit

Joel Leja被授予NSF天文学和天体物理学博士后奖学金，在哈佛大学进行研究和教育计划。 Leja将建立一个精确的理论模型，从天文观测中推断星系的物理性质。 了解这些性质将使天文学家更好地了解星系如何形成和演化。 除了这项研究之外，Leja还将通过“反向”科学博览会为中学生提供科学知识，他还将担任少数民族大学生的导师，帮助他们为天文学研究生课程做好准备。Leja将开发一个现实的模型，以拟合星系的光谱能量分布，使其优于约50%。 他将在模型中包括活动星系核的影响，并根据经过充分研究的光度和光谱星系目录进行校准。 经过全面校准后，他将把模型拟合到测光表中红移从0.2到3.0的近10,000个星系中。 拟合将产生最深的，最大的样本的自洽恒星质量和星星形成率的日期，并提供关键的约束反馈模型的星系形成。 对于他工作的教育部分，Leja将组织逆向科学博览会，专业科学家将向中学生展示他们的研究，他将在暑期课程中指导少数民族本科生，通过研究和学习经验为天文学研究生课程做好准备。

Joel Leja is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct a program of research and education at Harvard University. Leja will build an accurate theoretical model to infer the physical properties of galaxies from astronomical observations. Understanding these properties will allow astronomers to gain a better understanding of how galaxies form and evolve. Alongside this research, Leja will provide science enrichment to middle school students through "reverse" science fairs, and he will serve as a mentor to minority undergraduate students to help prepare them for graduate studies in astronomy.Leja will develop a realistic model to fit the spectral energy distribution of galaxies to better than about 50%. He will include the effects of active galactic nuclei in the model and calibrate it against well-studied photometric and spectroscopic galaxy catalogs. After full calibration, he will fit the model to nearly 10,000 galaxies spanning redshifts from 0.2 to 3.0 available in photometric catalogs. The fitting will yield the deepest, largest sample of self-consistent stellar masses and star formation rates to date and provide key constraints on feedback models of galaxy formation. For the educational component of his work, Leja will organize reverse science fairs where professional scientists will present their research to middle school students, and he will mentor minority undergraduate students in a summer program that prepares them for astronomy graduate programs through research and study experiences.