Scientific rationale
Clues to a galaxy's past are encoded in its current appearance, and by hunting down these clues, we can infer much about the life histories of these objects. Detailed studies of small numbers of individual systems are complemented by large demographic surveys, and both approaches can be connected to galaxies' high-redshift progenitors. Current cutting-edge instrumentation is being used to obtain a wealth of multi-dimensional information on morphology, kinematics, stellar populations, and gas properties, both within individual galaxies and across the population; the next generation of facilities offers even more exciting possibilities.
This conference seeks to bring together experts in the fields of galaxy dynamics, chemical evolution and galaxy environment to discuss recent results, foster collaborative discussion, and understand just how much of a galaxy's past can be inferred from its present-day state. The meeting also honours the careers of Profs. Michael Merrifield and Alfonso Aragón-Salamanca, who have played important roles in advancing astronomy in this area.
Main topics
- The morpho-kinematic properties of galaxies, including multi-component analysis and discrete halo tracers (globular clusters and PNe).
- Stellar populations, the interstellar medium (ISM) and their chemical evolution.
- The effect of the galaxy environment.
- Linking galaxy evolution from high-z to low-z.
- The Milky Way and galactic archeology.
- Current/future surveys and facilities (e.g. JWST, LSST, J-PAS, PFS, WEAVE, 4MOST...).
Michael Merrifield (ADS)
Michael Merrifield is Emeritus Professor of Astronomy at the University of Nottingham.
Having grown up in south London, Mike was an undergraduate at Oxford, and then went on to postgraduate study at Harvard, where he acquired an enduring interest in galaxy dynamics. After a postdoc at CITA in Toronto, he returned to the UK in 1992 to the University of Southampton, initially as a postdoc working on ROSAT X-ray imaging, and subsequently as a PPARC Advanced Fellow. During this time, he also worked with James Binney on the new edition of Galactic Astronomy ....
Michael Merrifield (Harvard University 1990)
- Irini Sakelliou (Southampton 1997)
- Joris Gerssen (Kapteyn, University of Groningen 1998)
- Nick Drake (Southampton 1998)
- Simon Coggins (UoN 2003)
- Laura Whyte (UoN 2004)
- Alejandro García Bedregal (UoN 2007)
- Sharon Meidt (New Mexico 2008)
- Helen Merrett (UoN 2007)
- Daniele Fantin (UoN 2011)
- Arianna Cortesi (UoN 2013)
- Michelle Lanyon-Foster (UoN 2014)
- Evelyn Johnston (UoN 2015)
- Martha Tabor (UoN 2019)
- Thomas Peterken (UoN 2020)
- Elizabeth Elmer (UoN 2021)
- Michael Greener (UoN 2023)
- Vitor Sampaio (NAT/UNICID São Paulo - ongoing)
- Kellie de Vos (UoN 2025)
- Karel Green (UoN 2025)
- Elizabeth Taylor (UoN 2025)
- Rob Olling (Southampton 1996–1999)
- Anne Mathieu (UoN 1999–2002)
- Aaron Romanowsky (UoN 2002–2004)
- Jordi Barr (UoN 2003–2006)
- Edo Noordermeer (UoN 2006–2007)
- Ana Chies-Santos (UoN 2014–2017)
- Amelia Fraser-McKelvie (UoN 2017–2020)
- Shuang Zhou (UoN 2020–2023)
Alfonso Aragón-Salamanca (ADS)
Alfonso Aragón-Salamanca is Professor of Astronomy at the University of Nottingham.
Alfonso was born in a tiny village north of Segovia, Spain. He was the first member of his family to go to university and studied Physics and Astrophysics in Bilbao and Madrid. After a short period away from academia, working for a technology company, he met Prof. Richard Ellis in Erice, Sicily, and the rest, as they say, is history... Richard supervised Alfonso’s PhD in Durham on galaxy evolution in, what was considered at the time, high-redshift clusters....
Alfonso Aragón-Salamanca (Durham University 1991)
- Bo Milvang-Jensen (UoN 2003)
- Steven Bamford (UoN 2006)
- Parimal Patel (UoN 2007)
- Alejandro García Bedregal (UoN 2007)
- Kyle Lane (UoN 2008)
- Ian Whiley (UoN 2008)
- Yara Jaffé (UoN 2012)
- David Maltby (UoN 2013)
- Kate Rowlands (UoN 2013)
- Evelyn Johnston (UoN 2015)
- Bruno Rodriguez del Pino (UoN 2015)
- Dongyao Zhao (UoN 2016)
- Kshitija Kelkar (UoN 2017)
- Martha Tabor (UoN 2019)
- Ting-Yun “Sunny” Cheng (UoN 2020)
- Thomas Peterken (UoN 2020)
- Michael Greener (UoN 2022)
- Vitor Sampaio (NAT/UNICID São Paulo - ongoing)
- Daniel Cornwell (UoN 2024)
- Callum O'Kane (UoN - ongoing)
- Rhys Jordan (UoN - ongoing)
- Michael Anderson Jennings (UoN - ongoing)
- Bianca Poggianti (Cambridge 1996–1998)
- Tadayuki Kodama (Cambridge 1997–1998)
- Chisato Ikuta (UoN 2001–2002)
- Jordi Barr (UoN 2003–2006)
- Osamu Nakamura (UoN 2004–2006)
- Edo Noordermeer (UoN 2006–2007)
- Dolf Michielsen (UoN 2007–2008)
- Carlos Hoyos (UoN 2011–2015)
- Ana Chies-Santos (UoN 2014–2017)
- Tim Weinzirl (UoN 2017–2019)
- Amelia Fraser-McKelvie (UoN 2017–2020)
- Ulrike Kuchner (UoN 2019–present)
- Shuang Zhou (UoN 2020–2023)
