THE SCIENCE FACULTY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN INVITES YOU TO THE 2025 SEMINAR SERIES

This seminar series is organised by the Science Faculty Research Committee.
Everyone interested is welcome to attend.

Speaker
Professor Neal Kats
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Title
Simulating the Universe

Abstract
I will discuss some of today's major issues in galaxy formation. I will discuss observations of galaxies and show that there is a dichotomy in many galaxy properties. I will describe how hydrodynamic computer simulations are used to study structure formation and in particular galaxy formation. I will present some of the latest results, which show that there are also dichotomies in galaxy accretion and outflow processes and that these dichotomies might give rise to the observed dichotomies. I will then discuss some outstanding issues.

Speaker Biography
Prof. Neal Katz received his PhD from Princeton University in 1989. He was a Bok Fellow at the University of Arizona, and Hubble Fellow at M.I.T., and faculty at the University of Washington before moving to the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1997, where he is now a Professor of Astronomy. He visited UCT over 2017 to 2019 as a Fulbright Scholar. He is one of the pioneers in using high performance, hydrodynamic computer simulations to study galaxy formation in a cosmological context. Some of his major discoveries include galaxy harassment, the fluctuating Gunn-Peterson effect as an explanation of the Lyman Alpha forest, and cold mode accretion.