Galactic Archaeology Lab @ UT

Group Members

The Galactic Archaeology Lab @ UT is accepting new Graduate/PhD students during the 2023-24 cycle.

To learn more about the exciting science our group works on review the Research page .

Group Leader

Prof. Hawkins

Prof. Keith Hawkins
Group Leader


Keith Hawkins is an assistant Professor of Astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin . He leads the Galactic Archaeology Lab @ UT. The research group focuses on the nature of the Milky Way Galaxy including its structure, dynamics, formation, evolution, and chemical makeup. He is also a memeber/CoI of the newly created Wootten Center for Astrophysical Plasma Properties (CAPP) at UT Austin . Feel free to read more on our groups research page about the work we do and some of the work I have done in the past.

Graduate Students

Catherine Manea
PhD Student (Year 5)


Catherine Manea is a rising fifth year graduate student studying the validity of ‘strong chemical tagging,’ the technique of using chemical information alone to trace stars back to their birth clusters. She has a particular interest in the s- and r-process neutron-capture elements observed in the spectra of stars and planetary nebulae. Before coming to UT, Catherine received her B.S. in Physics from UC Santa Cruz.

Hackshaw

Zoe Hackshaw
PhD Student (Year 2)


Zoe Hackshaw is a rising second year graduate student chemically mapping azimuthal variations in the Galactic disk. She will further investigate the origins of the Milky Way using the stars that have been incidentally collected throughout the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). Zoe is excited to continue using the chemistry of stars to piece together the history of the Galaxy, an endeavor that she started when she received her B.S. in Astrophysics from the University of Florida.

Undergrad Members

  • Jaden Levine (undergrad, year 4) is majoring in Astronomy and Physics. His primary research interests is in the chemodynamics of Barium rich stars. Jaden is a NSF REU scholar visiting UT from San Diego State University working with Prof. Keith Hawkins and Catherine Manea.
  • Himank Sharma (undergrad, year 4) is majoring in Astronomy and Physics. His primary research interests is in using Machine learning to pull out information from SDSS-V Spectra.

    • Former Group Members

    The Galactic Archaeology Lab has a growing number of alumni who have gone on to do some pretty amazing things, from assistant professors, to prize postdocoral fellowships, to STEM industry workers.

    Former Postdoc Fellows

    Maas

    Dr. Zack Maas
    Smith Fellow (2020-22) now Visiting Assistant Professor at Indiana University


    Dr. Zachary Maas studies the composition of stars as the Harlan J. Smith postdoctoral fellow at UT Austin/McDonald Observatory. He received bachelor degrees in physics and astrophysics from the University of Minnesota and a PhD from Indiana University. He measures stellar abundances to understand how the Milky Way has chemically evolved and how different elements are created in stars.

    Former Graduate Students

    Maddie Lucey
    PhD (2023) Now a NSF AAPF Fellow at UPenn


    Madeline "Maddie" Lucey was a NSF Graduate Research Fellow in the Galactic Archaeology lab at the University of Texas at Austin. Maddie completed her dissertation research in Galactic archaeology with Prof. Keith Hawkins. Specifically, she has been interested in finding and characterizing the oldest stars in our Galaxy, especially in the central regions. Maddie received my B.A. in Physics (with an emphasis on Astrophysics) from Colorado College in 2018. Maddie's excellent dissertation consisted of 6 first authored papers! Maddie is now a NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics (AAPF) Postdoc Fellow at UPenn working with Robyn Sanderson.

    Tyler Nelson
    PhD (2023) now visiting Lecturer at the University of Southern Maine


    Tyler Nelson completed his PhD in the Galactic Archaeology lab in summer 2023. His thesis topic focused on the detailed chemistry of wide binaries in order to constrain the feasibility of chemical tagging. He also worked towards understanding the origins of hypervelocity stars. Tyler also studied the detailed chemical fingerprint of comets around the solar system. He is now a visiting lecturer in the Dept. of Physics at the University of Southern Maine "

    Dreia Carrillo
    PhD (2021) now Postdoc at University of Durham


    Andreia "Dreia" Carrillo graduated from the Galactic Archaeology lab in 2021. During her time at in the group, she explored the detailed chemistry of Milky Way stars, using large surveys, spectroscopy, and zoom-in simulations. She also studies unresolved stellar populations in nearby galaxies using integral field unit data. She also was a LSSTC Data Science Fellow and was a Simons Foundation CCA Predoc Fellow. Dreia is now a postdoc fellow at Durham in the UK working with Alis Deason"

    Former Undergraduate Students

  • Moiya McTier (Graduate Student; Columbia University; 2017-2018)
  • Sarah Kane (now a British Marshall Scholar at University of Cambridge) -- Sarah was a NSF REU summer student visiting UT from the UPenn. Sarah worked towards finding metal-poor stars in the Gaia RVS spectra from Gaia DR3 using Machine learning. Simiilar to Prof. Hawkins, Sarah recieved a British Marshall Scholarship to attend the University of Cambridge for her PhD.
  • Turner Woody (now a NSF GRFP and PhD student at Harvard University) -- Turner was a NSF REU summer student visiting UT from the JHU. Turner worked towards characterizing metal-poor stars in the using spectra from APO/McDonald. He also worked with Rosie Wyse at JHU. He recieved a NSF GRFP fellowship to be a PhD student at Harvard University.
  • Diego Garza (now NSF GRFP/PhD student at UCSC) -- Diego was a TARUS summer student visiting UT from the University of Chicago. Diego worked towards understanding the origins of hypervelocity stars with Prof. Hawkins and Tyler Nelson. Diego recieved a NSF GRFP to attend the University of California Santa Cruz for his PhD.
  • Emily Wade -- was in the Galactic Archaeology lab during her undergrad studies. Her primary research interests was in the detection of fast moving hot stars in the HETDEX survey.
  • Kailee Turner -- was in the Galactic Archaeology lab during her undergrad studies. Her primary research interests was in dusty stars in Gaia DR3.
  • Johnathan Rupert -- was in the Galactic Archaeology lab during his undergrad studies. His primary research interests was in detecting Phosphorus rich stars.
  • Nariman Al Kharusi -- was in the Galactic Archaeology lab during her undergrad studies. Her primary research interests was in understanding the central regions of the Milky way. She worked with Maddie Lucey and co-authored a paper.
  • Dustin Katzberg -- was in the Galactic Archaeology lab during his undergrad studies. His primary research interests was in the chemical nature of wide binaries.
  • Rian Robison -- was in the Galactic Archaeology lab during their undergrad studies. They primarly worked with Dreia Carrillo.
  • Alice Burington (now a NSF GRFP Fellow at University of Chicago) -- Alice was a UT undergrad focused on Galactic dynamics. She co-authored a paper as an undergrad with Maddie Lucey. She is now a NSF GRFP Fellow at University of Chicago
  • Amaya Sinha (now a grad student at Utah) -- was in the Galactic Archaeology lab during their undergrad studies. Their primary research interest was in machine learning and cartography
  • Megan Thompson -- was in the Galactic Archaeology lab during her undergrad studies. Her primary research interests was in the chemical nature of wide binaries
  • Aryn Feldner -- was in the Galactic Archaeology lab during her undergrad studies. Her primary research interests was using machine learning to determine if light curves can be used to constrain the stellar parameters of a star
  • Kaile Wang was in the Galactic Archaeology lab during his undergrad studies. Her primary research interest was in the evolution and the chemical composition of the Milky Way Galaxy.
  • Steven Mohammed (Graduate Student; Columbia University; 2017-2018)
  • Jacob Acangeli (Part III Student; University of Cambridge; 2015)
  • Recce Jackson-Jones (Part III Student; University of Cambridge; 2014)