Among the projects funded by a five-year agreement between the University of Illinois and Cardiff University in the United Kingdom is an inter-university collaboration on galaxy evolution led by Prof. Decker French (Illinois) and Dr. Timothy Davis (Cardiff).  To kick off the project, four researchers from Cardiff visited Illinois from July 29 to August 1, 2024 to share their latest results on the study of molecular gas and dust in our galaxy and nearby galaxies.  The meeting also featured presentations by Illinois faculty Tony Wong, Lisa Young, and Decker French, Illinois graduate students Alex Green and Akshat Tripathi, and visiting researchers Danielle Lucero (Virginia Tech) and Antoniu Fodor (University of Toledo).

The overall goal of the collaboration is to better understand how galaxies transition from the active, star-forming phase of their lives to the passive, quiescent phase where their stars continue to shine but new stars are no longer formed.  The amount and physical state of cold gas is key to this understanding, and new observations of gas and dust can help us measure these key parameters.  As part of the collaboration, the Illinois and Cardiff groups intend to share analysis techniques, apply for new telescope time, and undertake comparisons between observational data and computer simulations.

The project will continue next year with a visit by Illinois researchers to Cardiff.  We are grateful for the support of the Discovery Partners Institute which oversees the funding program on the Illinois side.