Overview
Amy received a joint PhD in 2024 from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) and Macquarie University. Her dissertation, titled From Fractals to Relaxed Star Clusters: Hierarchical Star Formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud, explored the formation and evolution of young stellar structures and their transition to relaxed star clusters. She earned a Master’s degree in Physics from Montana State University in 2019 and a Bachelor of Science in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Wyoming in 2014.
Education
- Joint PhD, Astrophysics, Leibniz Institute of Astrophysics Potsdam and Macquarie University
- M.S., Physics, Montana State University, 2019
- B.Sc., Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming, 2014
Areas of Study
- Star Formation, Star Clusters, Stellar Populations
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research focuses on the infrared photometric analysis of hierarchical young stellar structures, including clusters, associations, and complexes. These structures, where most stars form, exhibit complex, fractal patterns arising from the physical processes within their parental gas clouds. Spanning a wide range of scales, from small clusters to vast star-forming complexes, these structures are often obscured at optical wavelengths, necessitating infrared observations to study their youngest and most embedded stages.
I aim to address critical, unresolved questions about star formation within these structures, such as: how star cluster formation depends on environmental factors, whether there are preferred scales in star formation, the dominant processes driving star formation, the extent to which young stellar structures inherit their spatial patterns from the interstellar medium, and how relaxed star clusters emerge from fractal young stellar hierarchies. My work seeks to advance our understanding of these fundamental aspects of star formation.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- An automated method to detect and characterise semi-resolved star clusters
- The VMC survey - XLVII. Turbulence-controlled hierarchical star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud