Contact Information
1002 W. Green St.
Urbana, IL
M/C 221
Research Areas
Biography
Hi, my name is Thinh Nguyen, and I come from Vietnam. I am a fourth-year graduate student, Ph.D. candidate who is working with Professor Kirk Barrow on studying galaxy evolution in cosmological simulations. I am interested in galaxy mergers, particularly their role in the hierarchical structure formation of the universe and their effect on star formation, metallicity, and morphology of galaxies.
Research Description
Current Research Project: I am working on investigating the Effect of Galaxy Mergers on Star Formation and Morphology through the Viewpoint of Different Simulation Codes in the AGORA Simulation Suite. AGORA is an international collaboration working on a well-calibrated set of ten major cosmological simulation codes (ENZO, GADGET-3, GADGET-4, AREPO-Thermal, AREPO-TNG, RAMSES, ART, GIZMO, GEAR, and CHANGA). This dataset allows a robust comparison between our current simulation codes, helping us examine our current feedback models and thus enhancing the predictive power of simulations. Because mergers are intricate processes that are highly sensitive to many properties of the progenitor galaxies, they serve as a useful setting to evaluate our present theoretical models.
Past Research Project: Examining the effect of different molecular hydrogen self-shielding modeling on early Reionization Era galaxies in radiative hydrodynamic cosmological simulations.
Education
B.S in Astronomy and B.A in Physics, Villanova University, 2018 - 2022
Courses Taught
ASTR 121 Solar System and Worlds Beyond, Fall 2022, TA
ASTR 121 Solar System and Worlds Beyond, Spring 2023, TA
ASTR 210 Introduction to Astrophysics, Fall 2025, TA
External Links
Co-chair of UIUC Journal Club
Highlighted Publications
Nguyen, T. H., Barrow, K. S. S., Byrom, S., & Satish, V. 2025, Effect of molecular hydrogen self-shielding modeling on early Reionization Era galaxies in radiative hydrodynamic cosmological simulations, arXiv:2511.07563,
doi:10.48550/arXiv.2511.07563.
Barrow, K. S. S., Nguyen, T. H., & Skrabacz, E. C. 2025, Haskap Pie: A Halo finding Algorithm with efficient Sampling, K-means clustering, tree-Assembly, Particle tracking, Python modules, Inter-code applicability, and Energy solving, arXiv:2505.22709, doi:10.48550/arXiv.2505.22709.
Jung, M., Kim, J ., Nguyen, T., Rodríguez-Cardoso, R., et al. 2025, The AGORA High-resolution Galaxy Simulations Comparison Project. VIII: Disk Formation and Evolution of Simulated Milky Way Mass Galaxy Progenitors at 1 < z < 5, arXiv:2505.05720, doi:10.48550/arXiv.2505.05720.
Rodríguez-Cardoso, R., Roca-Fàbrega, S., Jung, M., Nguyen, T., et al. 2025, The AGORA High-Resolution Galaxy Simulations Comparison Project VII: Satellite quenching in zoom-in simulation of a Milky Way-mass halo, arXiv:2505.05844, doi:10.48550/arXiv.2505.05844.
Jestin, T., Nguyen, T., Eyer, L., Rimoldini, L. et al. 2025, Gaia DR3 Variable White Dwarfs vetted by ZTF, arXiv:2509.15133, doi:10.48550/arXiv.2509.15133.
Nguyen, T. and Guinan, E. (2022). Stars on the Verge: Analyses of the Complex Light Variations of the Hyper-Luminous Red Supergiant VY Canis Majoris: On the Nature of the Star’s "Great Dimming" Episodes. RNAAS 6 12