Jon Holtzman

Stay at the IAC: 02/02/19 to 17/05/19

Research line: Stellar Physics and Galaxies

Prof. Jon Holtzman obtained his PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He worked at the Lowell Observatory before moving to the New Mexico State University, where he is currently the Department Head in the Department of Astronomy.

His main research interests are in the areas of stellar populations and data analysis and calibration. He is currently the Survey Scientist for the APOGEE-2 project of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

At the IAC, Dr. Holtzman will be working with members of the stellar group to improve the analysis of the APOGEE spectra before the final data release. He will also work on extending his studies of the chemical cartography of the Milky Way disk, and will be consulting with the galaxies group to develop ideas and techniques to take advantage of the synergy between analyses of the Milky Way and that of external galaxies.

He will give an IAC Seminar titled "Chemical Cartography of the Milky Way Disk with SDSS/APOGEE".

Abstract: The SDSS Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) has collected high resolution near-IR spectra of several hundred thousand stars across the Milky Way. I'll describe some observational results about the spatial variation of chemical abundances as a function of Galactocentric radius and distance from the midplane, discussing mean abundances, metallicity distribution function, and the variation of abundance ratios of multiple elements. Additional information related to stellar ages can be obtained from [C/N] for red giant stars. Several lines of evidence suggest that radial migration has had a significant impact on the Galactic disk.  The observed patterns of abundance ratios may provide observational constraints on nucleosynthetic yields.