Title: Comparing simulations and observations of Milky Way-like galaxies

Abstract: I will discuss recent advances in modeling the formation of the Milky Way-like galaxies via cosmological zoom-in simulations, and I will present new predictions from the FIRE-2 simulations for stellar dynamics and elemental abundances in Milky Way-like galaxies, including implications for chemical tagging. I will discuss these results in the context of observations of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. Finally, I will discuss the synthetic Milky Way-like surveys that we are creating from these simulations.

Bio: I am a computational theorist, using cosmological simulations to model the formation galaxies and their stars. I am an assistant professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of California, Davis. I earned my PhD at the University of California, Berkeley, and I pursued postdoctoral research at Yale University, Caltech, and Carnegie Observatories.