The third annual Hichwa Summer Research Fellowship has been awarded to Vincent Burns. Burns works with Professor Nicolas Lehner as a member of the KODIAQ (Keck Observatory Database of Ionized Absorbers toward QSOs) collaboration. The aim of KODIAQ is to study the diffuse plasma of the universe where the bulk of the baryonic matter may be present. Specifically, we seek to understand how galaxies interact with the IGM at redshift z~2-3.5 (i.e., when the Universe was ~2-3 billion years old).
In Prof. Lehner’s support letter for Burns he notes Burns’ self-motivation, curiosity, and great enthusiasm. Lehner says that, “Vincent’s research work has been key in the successful progress of one of my multi-year NASA programs aims to characterize the properties of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of high-redshift galaxies.”
Prof. Bryant Hichwa is a 1973 Notre Dame physics Ph.D., who was advised by Prof. Paul Chagnon in the nuclear physics research group.