Apr 12, 2006 - Chemical Evolution of Local Group Galaxies
- Kim Venn
The chemical make-up of a galaxy changes with time as stars
form, burn fuel in their cores, and then die away leaving behind the newly
formed elements. Studying the chemical evolution of the old stars in a
galaxy helps us to understand the formation of galaxies, as well as test
fundamental physics about nucleosynthesis.
Kim Venn is an Associate Professor in Physics and Astronomy
at Univeristy of Victoria, and a Canada Research Chair. She has been
analysing the chemistry of stars in nearby galaxies for nearly a decade
using the large aperture telescopes (VLT, Keck, Magellan) and their high
resolution optical spectrographs. She started in Astronomy at the University
of Toronto, completing graduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin
and postdoctoral work at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in
Munich, Germany. Before arriving at UVic, she held a Clare Boothe Luce
professorship in Astronomy and Physics at Macalester College, Minnesota, and
she was the recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award in Science and
Engineering.