At Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, UChicago student unravels the mysteries of galaxies

Editor’s note: This story is part of Dispatches from Abroad, a series highlighting UChicago community members who are researching, studying and working around the world.

University of Chicago astrophysics student Zewei Wu has spent his summer near Munich, Germany in “Science City,” conducting research to help unravel the story of how galaxies form and evolve.

A rising fourth-year in the College and Quad Undergraduate Research Scholar, Wu was an intern at the world-renowned Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany, where he has been running simulations of astrophysical plasma—the gas that composes more than half of all visible matter in galaxies, including stars and solar systems. As one of 84 institutes belonging to the Max Planck Society, the Institute for Astrophysics primarily focuses on theoretical astrophysics, including cosmology and galaxy formation.

Wu’s research internship experience, supported by the College Center for Research and Fellowships (CCRF), has been a unique opportunity to collaborate among this bustling research ecosystem and global efforts.

“It's a really inspiring thing that we have people from all sorts of different backgrounds and cultures, in a way, representing the entirety of humanity on this quest to pure knowledge,” Wu said.

Finding inspiration in the stars

Typically, Wu spends the workday running simulations, analyzing data, writing results, reading scientific literature, attending colloquiums and interacting with colleagues.

The collaborative nature of this environment provides endless opportunities to meet scientists across different subjects and to exchange ideas with those in his line of work, he said. Pockets of dynamic conversation happen over lunch breaks at the nearby canteen, over a casual cup of coffee, or while playing board games or foosball nearby his office.

Wu’s work aims to extend the institute’s current suite of simulations to help researchers better understand something known as the circumgalactic medium—the region that fuels a galaxy’s gas supply, which causes star formation. Studying this medium could help scientists better understand the life cycle of galaxies—a story that Wu said that we all innately yearn to uncover.

“A very romantic view of this whole situation is that people from all over the world are inspired by the same sky that we see each night,” Wu said.

For Wu, this isn’t the first time he’s done research abroad. This past March, Wu and six fellow classmates, traveled to the Magellan Telescopes in Chile for a field course in astronomy and astrophysics. Far from the urban horizons of Chicago and Wu’s native Beijing, he found himself marveling at the vastness of the Atacama Desert’s glittering ether.

“I stepped out of the car, and I just looked up and got completely stunned. I was standing there and gazing at the sky, just staring blankly,” Wu recalled. “I remember thinking: How can anybody see this and not be genuinely amazed and touched by the vastness of our universe and the insignificance of our own civilization?”

During the trip, students had the opportunity to star gaze and conduct observations at the telescopes that would later be analyzed and eventually published.

“From that moment, there was this very innate curiosity in myself to explore and understand all of this, and to try to make sense of our universe,” said Wu.

A global quest for knowledge

Astrophysics is a field that is inherently large in scale. On both an observational and theoretical level, international collaboration is fundamentally important.

“Astrophysics, like all sciences, is a global enterprise,” said Julia Brazas, co-director of Undergraduate Studies at UChicago. “There are telescopes, research sites and labs all over the world.”

According to Brazas, it is in the unfamiliarity––when the mundane makings of day-to-day life are altered, such as Wu’s work abroad—that college students can experience transformative growth and life-changing experiences.

“Doing research internationally exposes students to the larger community of scientists abroad and introduces them to future colleagues and collaborators from across the globe,” noted Brazas.

Coordinated by the German Academic Exchange Service’s Research Internships in Science and Engineering program, Wu’s experience alongside scientists at the Max Planck Institute has shown him how a synergetic environment can open doors—both in research and his future career.

As he approaches his last year at UChicago, Wu plans to pursue a Ph.D. program and continue delving into the simulation side of astrophysics. His time abroad has also spurred his interest in exploring future research and academic opportunities in Europe.

“It’s really important that we encourage people of all ages, young and old, to learn about the universe, where we came from, and where we’re going,” Wu said. “I think that’s one of the most fundamental things and one of the most beautiful.”