Ms. Jill Palmer Naiman is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University. Her research will focus predominately on how stars form in small galaxies and star clusters. As stars are the fundamental units of luminous matter in the universe, being responsible, directly or indirectly, for most of what we observe, it is of central importance in astrophysics to understand how stars form. Furthermore, galaxy formation is hierarchical - small things like dwarf galaxies merge to become bigger things, and eventually, objects like our galaxy. Ms. Naiman's research will use three dimensional simulations of gas to model how stars will form in small astrophysical systems in order to determine both how these objects became what we observe today, and how their star formation histories could have affected the amount of stars which formed in our larger Milky Way galaxy. In addition to her research efforts Ms. Naiman will grow several outreach activities in which she currently participates. She will continue teaching STEM classes to inmates through the Prison Education Project, bring together groups of scientists and artists to visualize complex astrophysical simulations for the education and enjoyment of the public, and will continue teaching and mentoring students.
Ms. Naiman will carry out a theoretical investigation, chiefly involving numerical simulations, aimed at understanding the mass supply conditions required for triggering star formation, with an emphasis on processes occurring at large scales in both galaxies and star clusters. Using a three-dimensional view and a complete description of the microphysics including hydrodynamics, stellar and radiative feedback and external gravitational perturbations Ms. Naiman will test our understanding of star formation in globular clusters. This knowledge will also be applied to issues related to gas retention and star formation in galactic dwarf galaxies. The effects of gas retention in nuclear star clusters on the feeding rates of central, massive black holes will also be studied. In addition to her research efforts the author will continue several outreach activities through the opportunities and programs available in the Boston area and the Harvard campus. Three education and public outreach activities will be carried out, which build on existing proven activities. First, an educational program will aim to intermingle the training of computational scientists and students in the visual arts and digital media using state-of-art astrophysical simulations as common ground. As an instructor in the Prison Education Project, Ms. Naiman will also teach courses incorporating astronomy concepts into math education through inquiry based methods to Boston inmates. Finally, Ms. Naiman will continue her role as a research mentor to underrepresented undergraduates.
