Zachary J. Pace
About
About
I am an observational astronomer. I work on survey-scale chemical evolution studies, specifically with large spectroscopic datasets. I also build inference pipelines that infer hard-to-measure quantities from high-dimensional data.
What is chemical evolution?
Galaxies contain many of the visible signs of the changes that the universe has gone through since the beginning of the universe. Over time, the cold gas in galaxies (mostly hydrogen) forms stars, which expel heavier elements ("metals") when they die & chemically enrich their surroundings. Chemical evolution refers to this simultaneous depletion of the gas supply & metal-enrichment of the gas. I study the stars and gas in nearby galaxies to unravel under what circumstances galaxies form stars, the effects of star formation on galaxies' chemical makeup, and why galaxies stop forming stars.What is chemical evolution?
Education
Education
University of Wisconsin - Madison
- Ph.D., Astronomy & Astrophysics (Aug. 2020)
- Advisor: Prof. C. Tremonti
- M.S., Astronomy & Astrophysics (2016)
University at Buffalo, SUNY
- B.S. (Honors), Physics
- B.A., Mathematics