News

It’s my pleasure to announce that this year we have two winners of the Jui Lin (Allen) Yen Award for outstanding research contribution.

We’re honoring Sam Berek for her paper Should Zeros Count? Modeling the Galaxy–Globular Cluster Scaling Relation with(out) Zero-inflated Count Models. In this paper, she introduced a new and underused statistical method (generalized linear models, and specifically count models with zero-inflation) to the astronomical literature and used it to model the observed relationship between GC counts and host galaxy stellar mass. She conclusively showed that a Poisson count model is not an appropriate model for the observed relationship between GC counts and host galaxy stellar mass and that a negative binomial model should be used instead, with important implications for anyone simulating globular cluster counts at redshift zero.

We are also honoring Shivan Khullar for his paper Playing with FIRE: A Galactic Feedback-Halting Experiment Challenges Star Formation Rate Theories. In this paper, Shivan tests the rules that govern star formation within spiral galaxies, in particular focusing on the crucial role that feedback plays in regulating star formation. Shivan’s innovation was to evolve a galaxy to the present day, using the FIRE (Feedback in Realistic Environments) simulations, and then compare a version of it in which he halts feedback, to a version that continues normally. The outcome was remarkable: shutting off feedback boosted the star formation rate, by an order of magnitude more than turbulence regulation could explain.

Congratulations to the two winners!

Jo