Professor Andrew Wetzel
I am a professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of California, Davis. I earned my PhD in astrophysics at the University of California, Berkeley, and I pursued postdoctoral research at Yale University, Caltech, and Carnegie Observatories. Read more about my background.
I am fortunate to pursue research with the group below.
PhD students
Heather Pearson first joined us in 2022 as an undergraduate student via our REU program, and she then joined us as a PhD student in 2023. Heather works on predictions for elemental abundance patterns of stars in simulated galaxies and how we can use them to understand stellar nucleosynthesis within the context of galaxy formation.
Cecilia Steel joined us in 2025 and was awarded a UC Davis Graduate Research Mentorship fellowship. Cecilia investigates stellar dynamics in the disks of Milky Way-mass galaxies, including the dynamical evolution and radial redistribution of the orbits of stars over time.
undergraduate students
postdogs
Theodore is our group’s Chief Morale Officer. He joined our group after a short stay at Los Angeles county’s Baldwin Park Animal Care Center. Deciding that astrophysics might be more interesting than squirrel chasing, he earned his Pretty hairy Dog (Ph.D.) degree at Caltech (advised by JoAnn Boyd). He then pursued a postdog fellowship at Carnegie Observatories. As you can see, he effectively runs our group.
Alumni
postdoc alumni
Sarah Loebman joined us 2017-2020 as a NASA Hubble Fellow and UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow. Sarah went on as a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of California, Merced.
Samantha Benincasa joined us 2018-2020 as a postdoctoral research scholar, modeling the interstellar medium (gas) in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. Sam went on as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Astronomy at the Ohio State University, where she held a President’s Postdoctoral Scholarship, NSERC Fellowship, and a CCAPP Fellowship.
graduate student alumni
Megan Barry joined us 2021-2026. She first made predictions for the population of dark-matter subhalos around the Milky Way. She then worked on elemental abundances of stars in simulations of Milky Way-like galaxies, focusing on the origin of the bimodality in the distribution of alpha-element abundances. Megan went on as a Moore Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Physics at UC Merced.
Fiona McCluskey joined us 2019-2026 and was awarded a NASA FINESST fellowship. Fiona modeled the formation of the disks of Milky Way-mass galaxies, including the roles of cosmological disk settling, and the dynamical heating and radial redistribution of stars over cosmic time.
Pratik Gandhi joined us 2019-2024 and was awarded a Frontera Computational Science Fellowship from the Texas Advanced Computing Center. Pratik first explored the effects of metallicity-dependent rates of white-dwarf supernovae in simulations of galaxy formation. He then worked on the ‘near-far connection’: how we can use the stellar fossil record of nearby low-mass galaxies to understand the epoch of reionization. Pratik went on as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Astronomy at Yale University.
Preet Patel first joined us 2018 as an undergraduate student via the BlueWaters Student Internship, and he then joined us as a graduate student 2020-2023, earning a Master’s degree. Preet worked on predictions for elemental abundance patterns of stars in simulated galaxies and how we can use them to understand stellar nucleosynthesis and galaxy formation. Preet went on as a Patent Examiner in the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Matt Bellardini joined us 2018-2023, working on the formation of the disks of Milky Way-mass galaxies, including spatial variations of elemental abundances (metals) and how they vary across cosmic time, as well as and radial redistribution of the orbits of stars over time. Matt went on as a Senior Mission Planning Engineer at BlackSky.
Isaiah Santistevan joined us 2018-2023 and was awarded a NASA FINESST fellowship. Isaiah worked on the formation histories of Milky Way-mass galaxies, including the origin and dynamics of metal-poor stars. Isaiah also used our cosmological simulations to infer the full orbital histories of satellite galaxies in the Local Group. Isaiah went on as a postdoc at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Jenna Samuel joined us 2018-2021, working on the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way and Andromeda, including their spatial and velocity distributions, the origin of the observed thin planes of satellites, and gas stripping and star-formation quenching via the halo environment. Jenna went on as an NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas, Austin.
undergraduate student alumni
Dylan Blum joined us 2025-2026 for a Senior Thesis on the spatial clustering of star formation over time in Milky Way-mass galaxies, including the incidence of star clusters at early times.
Rori Kang joined us from Harvey Mudd College during summer 2024 via our REU program, working on the dynamical evolution of stellar orbits in Milky Way-mass galaxies. Rori went on as a PhD student in astrophysics at the University of Toronto.
Alfredo Calderon joined us from Cal Poly Humboldt during summer 2023 via the Cal-Bridge program, working on predictions for the stellar mass function of galaxies during the epoch of reionization.
Russell Graf joined us 2022-2023 for a Senior Thesis on the elemental abundance patterns of stars, their spatial variations, and their dependence on age in simulations of Milky Way-mass galaxies. He continued to work with us after graduation through 2024 as a junior specialist, to understand the origin and evolution of metallicity radial gradients. Russell went on as a Master’s student in Aerospace Engineering at UC Davis.
Rachel Perelgut joined us 2022-2023 for a Senior Thesis on the evolution of the orientation of galactic disks across cosmic time. Rachel went on as a Master’s student in astrophysics at Cal State Long Beach.
Heather Pearson joined us from Oberlin College during summer 2022 via our REU program, working on the ‘near-far connection’: how we can use the stellar fossil record of nearby low-mass galaxies to understand the epoch of reionization. Heather later joined our group as a PhD student.
Bhavya Pardasani joined us from the University of Illinois (virtually) during summer 2021 via our REU program, working on understanding the (hot) halo gas around the Milky Way and its role in stripping gas from satellite galaxies and quenching their star formation. Bhavya went on as a PhD student in Astronomy at Yale University.
Preet Patel joined us from the University of Michigan during summer 2018 via the Blue Waters Student Internship, working on predictions for elemental abundance patterns in stars of low-mass galaxies. Preet later joined our group as a graduate student.
Sierra Chapman joined us 2018-2019, for a Senior Honors Thesis, working on predictions for the population of dark-matter subhalos in the halo of the Milky Way, including encounter rates of subhalos with the Milky Way’s disk and stellar streams. Sierra went on as a software engineer in industry.