Headshot of Brian DiGiorgio Zanger

I'm a Colby astronomy professor who values the liberal arts

I study irregularities in galaxy rotation — from bars to lensing — and model them using Bayesian techniques. I value teaching and outreach and aim to create an active learning environment where astronomy can be applied to daily life.

Projects

Image showing an example barred velocity field with the Nirvana model of it, the residuals of the fit, and an image of the galaxy.

Nirvana

Nirvana is a nonparametric Bayesian forward modeling package for fitting bisymmetric distrubances in galaxy kinematics. It also includes a catalog of 1000+ kinematic models of barred galaxies from the MaNGA survey.

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A diagram showing the differential effects of lensing shear on a galaxy's kinematic and photometric information.

Kinematic Weak Lensing

Kinematic information is affected differently by weak lensing shear compared to photometric information. By modeling both the shear and on the velocity field and the discrepency between kinematics and photometry, we can significantly increase lensing information per galaxy.

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Teaching

I've taught classes on introductory & upper level astronomy and graduate pedagogy, with emphasis on Universal Design, active learning, and hands-on practice.

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A question mark with a space background.

Outreach

I have worked observatory open houses, taught Python & data science to summer REU students, led the UC Observatory's "Ask an Astronomer" team.

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