The Growth of Cosmic Behemoths

A PAS invited talk featuring Dr. Devontae Baxter, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, San Diego.

Topic
Dr. Baxter is an observational and computational astrophysicist investigating the dependence of environment on galaxy formation and evolution. His work is primarily centered on understanding the astrophysical processes responsible for the divergent evolution of galaxies that reside in low- and high-density regions of the cosmos. In this lecture, he will share insights into our current theoretical and observational understanding of the densest environments in the early universe, and discuss the next-generation observatories poised to significantly advance research in this area.

Speaker
Devontae Baxter holds the dual positions of NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics and UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, San Diego, where he studies the impact of environment on galaxy formation and evolution. He did his undergraduate studies at Georgia Institute of Technology, majoring in Physics with a specialization in Astrophysics and minoring in Spanish. He did his graduate studies at UC Irvine under the supervision of Professor Michael Cooper, where his thesis work centered on merging machine learning, cosmological simulations, and observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Keck, and Gemini North & South to identify the physical mechanisms driving the suppression of star formation in galaxy groups and clusters over the past 8 billion years of cosmic time. Dr. Baxter is the recipient of numerous honors and awards. Beyond doing research, Dr. Baxter is deeply invested in teaching, mentorship and outreach. He is the founder and program director of Computational Astrophysics Research Preparation (CARP) meant to equip aspiring community college transfer students with programming skills for a smooth transition to a four-year institution.

Meeting Logistics
This will be a hybrid event, in person and online, and Dr. Baxter will present remotely over Zoom.

Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86566826677?pwd=qr3zBCVGx4w6axybZvaRd1Ka0CQXAS.1
Meeting ID: 865 6682 6677
Passcode: 893536