Galaxy Evolution and Cosmology Initiative (GECO)

Milky Way Analog Image with gas and shocks

Galaxy Evolution and Cosmology (GECO) is a research initiative focused on galaxy evolution and cosmology made possible by generous seed funding from the Provost and Dean’s office at UVA. The relevant themes include resolved stellar populations, near-field cosmology, the dark universe, and galaxy formation and evolution, from both theoretical and observational perspectives. UVA is a member of the LSST-Discovery alliance, SDSS, and has access to a range of telescope apertures and wavelengths (including LBT, MMT/Magellan). The UVA astronomy faculty have strong research ties to the scientific staff at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is located on the grounds of the University.

2024 GECO Fellows

Photo of Niusha Ahvazi — **Niusha Ahvazi** is graduating from UC Riverside. She is a theorist interested in small galaxies as probes of alternative dark matter models. She has thought in detail about how to extend simulations and semi-analytic models to different resolution scales. She has worked with the CASSie internship program and formulated interesting undergrad and grad projects.

Photo of Aklant Bhowmick — **Aklant Bhowmick** is joining us from a postdoc position at U Florida. He is a theorist interested in Black Hole seeds, of relevance to upcoming LISA and JWST observations. He is also interested in whether we can use low luminosity AGN populations to constrain alternative dark matter models. He is interested in postdoc community building and developed several outreach programs.

Photo of Nuria Torres — **Núria Torres-Albà** is joining us from a postdoc position at Clemson University, and broadly works on observations of Black Holes. Specifically she is interested in how and where material settles around a Black Hole, and how this impacts our understanding of feedback. She has already designed and supervised numerous PhD and undergraduate projects.

Photo of Andrew Pace — **Andrew Pace** is joining us from a postdoc position at CMU. He is an observer interested in the nature of dark matter, has experience in statistical analysis and mass modeling, and is an expert in spectroscopy. He is also an integral part of many survey teams. He is thoughtful about mentorship and interested in building a GECO undergraduate summer program.

Cross-disciplinary Opportunities

GECO strives to be a space for innovation, including as a nexus for art and design.

With William Wylie, Commonwealth Professor of Art, we are developing a series of cyanotype prints made from spectrographic plates that were used in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey’s APOGEE experiment. Whilst these cyanotypes depict beautiful star charts, they also capture and render the quite technical (and mostly opaque to the larger community) way in which astronomical surveys are planned and executed, all in the form of a tactile, approachable, object.
With Katy Marks, Founder of the award winning London-based architecture firm Citizens Design Bureau (@citizensdesignbureau) that specializes in conservation of museums, performing arts centers and other community venues, we are developing a “brief” to figure out how to depict in design (possibly via installation space) the concept that we only know about 4% of the Universe.