Mapping the universe through computer

modeling
Elon senior Helen Meskhidze, a recent finalist for the prestigious Rhodes
Scholarship, is using the universitys top prize for undergraduate research
and creative achievement to help astrophysicists study galaxies that
create stars at rates far greater than average.
By Sarah Mulnick 17
Scattered throughout the universe are starburst
galaxies that form stars faster than normal and
no two are alike.
As they disperse light, their appearances change.
Some grow antennae, while others spiral into
the nether regions of space. And the light they
emit presents itself in ways that changes
depending on various factors.
Elon University senior Helen Meskhidze with her Lumen
Prize mentor, Assistant Professor Chris Richardson

What makes one galaxy look a certain way, while

another appears vastly dierent? Thats what
Elon University senior Helen Meskhidze has been

working to discover, and her work is the latest to be featured in a series of profiles on Lumen Scholars
in the Class of 2016.
Meskhidze, a recent finalist for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, studies starburst galaxies with
support from the Lumen Prize. The clusters of stars and supernovas millions of light years from Earth
emit diverse wavelengths of light. Everything from temperature to the chemical composition of the star
clouds aects those colors.
Thats where Meskhidzes work comes innot only in understanding, but also in making that
information easily accessible to other researchers. We want to recreate the conditions that created
that appearance, she said, and were putting that into an atlas.
An atlas of starburst galaxy emission lines will be a compilation of the Honors Fellows supercomputer
simulations that have revealed the type of light astrophysicists should expect to see from galaxies that
contain certain properties. Meskhidze, a physics and philosophy double major with a minor in French,
intends to make the atlas available for researchers studying the causes of the galactic phenomena.
Doing so will give astrophysicists a nearly instant snapshot of what they observe through their own
equipment.

An observational science, astrophysics diers from other sciences in that researchers study the results
of experiments that have already happened. Though a researcher can study the light coming from
distant galaxies, theres a distinct lack of experimentation in the traditional sense. Instead of Bunsen
burners and petri dishes, their tools include large-scale computer models and phenomena that were
millions of years in the making.
The future atlas will oer immediate clues to the age, composition, and density of starburst galaxies,
among other characteristics.
Meskhidze spent a summer researching computational astrophysics at NC State University after her
freshman year, where she was first introduced to the idea of models being used to understand
astronomy. Those models are vital to the study of space because of the vast scale of itwhat looks
like a short distance in the night sky can be millions of light years apart.
I was really excited about the opportunity to model cosmic-scale things on computers, she said.
Youre studying the universe with your computer.
Renowned astrophysicists have also taken note. Gary Ferland, a physics and astronomy professor at
the University of Kentucky, said that while astronomers have to be clever about how they receive their
information from light, Meskhidze has become an expert at using computer programs to do so.
He added that Meskhidze is making excellent progress in a dicult field.
The Lumen Prize, awarded for the first time in 2008, provides selected students with a $15,000
scholarship to support and celebrate their academic and creative achievements. Lumen Scholars work
closely with faculty mentors to pursue and complete their projects.
Eorts include coursework, study abroad, research both on campus and abroad as well as during the
regular academic year and summers, internships locally and abroad, program development and
creative productions and performances. Meskhidze has presented at conferences in Washington,
D.C., and Seattle, and she interned last year at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
Meskhidze used part of her Lumen Prize funding to pursue research that emanated from a methods
course in philosophical inquiry. She shared work about queerness in nature at a conference of the
Canadian Society for Women in Philosophy.
That paper, Challenging Ontologies: Making
Sense in Ethics, Science, Politics, and Art, stems
from colloquial use of the phrase acts against
nature. Meskhidze oers a philosophic refutation
of this phrase by highlighting the temporality of
the queerness evident in nature. She argued that
queerness does exist in nature but only as a
temporary quality that is dependent on a
paradigm.

For example, she said, though the electron acts

queerly when analyzing it via the Bohr model of the atom, it no longer exhibits that queerness when
adopting a framework of quantum mechanics. However, she said, a quantum mechanical framework
does highlight other queer phenomena.
Im so grateful for the Lumen prizes commitment to support the scholar and not just a particular
project, she said.
Although she says many of her classes dont overlap, Meskhidze has always seen a pull between
physics and philosophy. Theres really cool philosophical undertones with modeling such complex
systems, she said. If you think about it in the sense of it being a virtual reality that youre setting up,
theres lots of thought experiments there.
Elon University Assistant Professor Chris Richardson, Meskhidzes Lumen Prize mentor, said her work
has been charting uncharted territories.
Working with Helen has been great, Richardson said. She always exceeds expectations. She has
very strong leadership skills, and shes evolved into a truly independent researcher. No matter what
she does, shes going to be successful.
In addition to her Lumen research, Meskhidze was also involved with Amnesty International and the
Society of Physics Students. She is currently part of a research team working on a Diversity Infusion
Project to understand the gender gap in philosophy classes.
Meskhidze has received multiple awards from the university and other organizations, including
departmental awards in physics and philosophy, and the Society of Physics Students National
Outstanding Student Award. She is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa national honor society, Phi
Kappa Phi, the Sigma Pi Sigma physics honor society, and the Pi Delta Phi French honor society.
Her commitment to service is also exemplary. Meskhidze has served as both president and secretary
of Elons chapter of the Society of Physics Students, and as part of Elon Volunteers!, she has
contributed to raising awareness through Amnesty International campus events.
A resident of Raleigh, North Carolina, Meskhidze plans to attend graduate school for studies in the
philosophy of science following her May graduation.
Eric Townsend, Sta

12/7/2015 9:00 AM