Welcome back to campus as we embark on a new academic year! I hope you all had a great summer and are ready to dive into your studies and research.
This summer was a vibrant time for the DiRAC community, marked by significant research endeavors. I’m excited to highlight some of this research: Aritra Ghosh’s groundbreaking paper, published in August, explores the fascinating relationship between galaxies in dense environments and the effects of their surroundings. Using machine learning techniques, Aritra analyzed 3 million galaxies observed by the Subaru telescope and conclusively showed that galaxies with many neighbors are larger than their more isolated counterparts — an observational result that contradicts current theoretical expectations. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, I highly encourage you to do so!
In a new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, the team, which used a machine-learning algorithm to analyze millions of galaxies, reports that galaxies found in denser regions of the universe are as much as 25% larger than isolated galaxies. The findings resolve a long-standing debate among astrophysicists over the relationship between a galaxy’s size and its environment, but also raise new questions about how galaxies form and evolve over billions of years.
At the University of Washington, Peter Ferguson is a DiRAC postdoctoral fellow as well as a fellow in the eScience institute. Previously, he was a postdoc at University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was part of the observational cosmology group, and he completed his PhD at Texas A&M University.
UW Be Boundless Campaign featured Professor Mario Jurić and his undergraduate students, showcasing how to use cutting-edge coding skills to help scientists make the most of discoveries from a revolutionary Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s telescope.
At the end of August, we were treated to wrap-up presentations by the four Summer Research Prize recipients. Now in its third year, the Summer Research Prize is awarded to support new and ongoing undergraduate research projects, and help students work closely with their mentors at the University of Washington.
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