Hi, I'm Hillary.

Galactic archaeologist | science Communicator

I am a galactic archaeologist whose mission is to unravel our cosmic origin story. I am also a science communicator who finds fulfillment in telling the stories behind the science.

RESEARCH

I am currently a PhD student in Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. I use data from world-class ground- and space-based telescopes to study the Universe. My major research themes are summarized below.

To learn more about my projects, go to my Research page. The full list of my publications are in Google Scholar and ADS.

HOW DID OUR OWN GALAXY GROW?

Stars remember. I use high-resolution spectroscopy to decode the chemical memory of the oldest stars in the Milky Way, piecing together these individual stellar “memories” to reconstruct how our home Galaxy formed over billions of years.

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HOW small can a galaxy get?

At the edge of our cosmic neighborhood lurk galaxies barely massive enough to be seen by our best telescopes. I study these ultra-faint systems and how they built up the Milky Way.

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where did gold come from?

The origin of the heavy elements is still an unsolved problem in astrophysics. With stellar spectra, I aim to understand where, when, and how these elements were synthesized throughout the history of the universe.

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