Dr Mattia Vaccari, from the University of the Western Cape, will present the NASSP Colloquium with a talk entitled, "The Universe in Full Color : Multi-Wavelength Studies of the Cosmic Star Formation History".

The coming of age of multi-wavelength astrophysics over the past decade has allowed us to probe deep and wide into the distant universe at all wavelengths thanks to the combination of ground-based and space-based instrumentation. This giant leap in observational capabilities has provided much further insight into how different wavelengths can be used to reliably trace star formation rates and thus place stronger constraints on the cosmic star formation history and on computer simulations trying to reproduce it.  

Dr  Vaccari will provide a general introduction to the subject and then discuss some recent results of our research in this field, and particularly how long-wavelength (infrared, millimetre and radio) observations are being used to improve upon ultra-violet/optical estimates.  He will conclude by outlining future lines of research in the field by UCT/UWC/IDIA researchers and students, and in particular how machine learning techniques can be effectively combined with more traditional approaches to fully exploit the upcoming data deluge from projects such as MeerKAT, LSST and SKA.

Dr Mattia Vaccari is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of the Western Cape and at the Inter-University Institute for Data-Intensive Astronomy. He studies the formation and evolution of galaxies over cosmic time by combining observations from ground-based and space-based telescopes. He is the PI of the Spitzer Data Fusion, (http://www.mattiavaccari.net/df), a Co-PI of the VST INAF GT VOICE (http://www.mattiavaccari.net/voice/) and he serves as Project Scientist and SA lead of the EC-FP7- and SA-DST-funded "Herschel Extragalactic Legacy Project" (http://www.herschel.sussex.ac.uk/). He received a MSc in Physics from the Department of Physics "Galileo Galilei" of the University of Padova and a PhD in Space Science and Technology from the Department of Astronomy and the Center for Space Studies and Activities "Giuseppe Colombo" of the University of Padova, and he has previosuly held research fellowships within the Astrophysics Group at Imperial College London and the Department of Astronomy at the University of Padova.