Devontae C. Baxter

Dr. Devontae Baxter is a National Science Foundation Astronomy & Astrophysics and UC Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow at UC San Diego investigating the co-evolution of galaxies and their environment. He did his undergraduate studies at Georgia Institute of Technology, majoring in Physics with a specialization in Astrophysics and minoring in Spanish. He did his graduate studies at UC Irvine under the supervision of Professor Michael Cooper, and his thesis work centered on merging machine learning, cosmological simulations, and observations from large extragalactic surveys to constrain the physical mechanisms driving the suppression of star formation in galaxy groups and clusters environments. As a postdoctoral fellow, he is working to understand how the densest environments in the early universe, namely galaxy protoclusters, influence the suppression and enhancement of star formation and stellar mass growth of galaxies. Beyond research, he is very active in community outreach, having developed the Computational Astrophysics Research Preparation (CARP) program. This is a week-long programming and mentorship workshop held at the San Diego Supercomputer Center that helps prospective community college transfer students develop research skills and enhance their transfer-readiness. He is also passionate about science communication, having taught foundational astronomy concepts to K-12 students via stargazing events and portable planetarium shows. He has also endeavored to make cutting-edge astrophysics research accessible to the general public via engaging public lectures. In his free time, he enjoys skateboarding, learning new languages, and spending quality time with his friends and family.

Contact Info: dcbaxter@ucsd.edu, https://sentientstarstuff.github.io