On Monday, March 6 this week Wenhao Li defended his dissertation on post-merger galaxies, and became Dr. Li! Mergers commonly trigger both star formation quenching and active galactic nuclei (AGN). By analyzing the star formation history and neutral hydrogen covering fraction of many post-merger galaxies, Wenhao was able to show that star formation quenching is more directly related to the merging behavior than to the ensuing AGN activity.

Dr. Wenhao Li has exciting career prospects, and is considering either entering the private industry in China or continuing with two proposals accepted by NuSTAR and Chandra in 2022. As an observer, Li says one of the most interesting parts of his research is creating a pipeline to take raw observational data such as flux and derive properties of physical interest, such as gas covering fractions and star formation rate. These derived properties have to be properly presented, scaled, and colored to make an accurate and convincing case, as Dr. Li has for the connection between mergers, AGN, and star formation rates.

 The Physics and Astronomy Graduate Student Association is happy to announce we've been invited to a student-lead research symposium at Mississippi State University. The symposium will take place on March 25, in Hilbun Hall (pictured). Graduate and undergraduate students are welcome. PAGSA will be arranging some transportation, stay tuned for details.

If you plan to attend you present, the official registration form is here:

MSU Symposium Registration

NOTE: The Doodle poll sent out previously was for a rough headcount to tell MSU. This is the real registration form!

Here's the announcement about the event from PGSA at MSU with additional details:

MSU Symposium Announcement

Please register by March 18. iPosters must be emailed to MSUPGSA@proton.me by March 23, with the subject line:

"Poster_Title / Author_Name".

This is an excellent opportunity to collaborate and meet new, fellow scientists. It's also a great opportunity to practice going to a conference is you've never been before, as it's a low pressure environment in which to share your research. Hope to see you all there!