Zack Hutchens Earns Ph.D. in Astrophysics

Congratulations to Zack Hutchens on the successful defense of his Ph.D. thesis “Multiphase Gas in Galaxy Groups in RESOLVE, ECO, and LADUMA” at UNC Chapel Hill! Zack was a member of my undergraduate research group at High Point University and worked on several interesting projects, including the dying pulsations of the sdBV star CS 1246. His Ph.D. thesis (under the guidance of Dr. Sheila Kannappan) focused on developing a group-finding algorithm for the Gas in Galaxy Groups (G3) initiative, enhancing group-finding for the RESOLVE, ECO, and LADUMA surveys. His research provides the first measurement of the HI-halo mass relation without spectral stacking, revealing key insights into galaxy evolution. Additionally, he introduced the Probabilistic G3 (PG3) technique to handle redshift uncertainties, advancing the understanding of HI gas evolution over the past ~9 billion years. Zack will begin work as a postdoctoral student at UNC Asheville this fall!