NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI) for FY 2013 in Japan

Byler Eleanor, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds Eleanor Byler of the University of Washington in Seattle to conduct a research project in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences area during the summer of 2013 at the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe at the University of Tokyo Kashiwa campus in Japan. The project title is "Mapping the Internal Structure of Galaxies to Study Galaxy Growth and Evolution." The host scientists are Drs. Masahiro Takada and Kevin Bundy. Studying the internal structure of galaxies helps us understand the processes that regulate their growth and evolution. Star formation, gas content, and internal feedback processes all affect the development of structure within a galaxy. We would like to map these properties within a galaxy in detail using the power of spatially resolved spectroscopy, but turning raw spectral measurements into meaningful physical properties has been done inconsistently for small samples of galaxies. This work develops tools to uniformly calculate these properties for the entire galaxy sample, providing robust comparisons and the statistical significance necessary to meaningfully study the evolution of galaxies. Broader impacts of an EAPSI fellowship include providing the Fellow a first-hand research experience outside the U.S.; an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and an orientation to the society, culture and language. These activities meet the NSF goal to educate for international collaborations early in the career of its scientists, engineers, and educators, thus ensuring a globally aware U.S. scientific workforce. Furthermore, the galaxy maps produced this summer will be used as a part of a citizen science effort for object classification and pattern identification allowing everyone can share in the experience of scientific discovery.