Dr. Katherine Alatalo

Dr. Katherine Alatalo

I am a Associate Astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute. Scientifically, you can find me working on the question of what makes galaxies die, searching for ways to determine the initial conditions that lead a blue spiral's star formation to quench. I am the lead of the Shocked Poststarburst Galaxy Survey and co-lead the quenching galaxy research group at Space Telescope and Johns Hopkins with Dr. Kate Rowlands.

Previously, I was a Hubble fellow at the Carnegie Observatories working on the nature of quenching galaxies through a multiwavelength lens, as well as a postdoctoral scholar at IPAC/Caltech, studying the effects that shocks have on galaxies within Hickson Compact Groups. I graduated in 2012 with a Ph.D. in astrophysics from UC - Berkeley working on molecular gas in early-type galaxies.

Research Interests

I have broad scientific interests mainly pertaining to the physical processes and triggers that instigate the cessation of star formation in galaxies. I like to follow the gas.

My current interests mostly focus on using CARMA and ALMA to map cold molecular gas in candidates from AGN feedback. I am the lead of the Shocked Poststarburst Galaxy Survey, and thus spend much of my time thinking about how galaxies transform from blue spirals to red early-types, and specifically how the interstellar medium of the transitioning galaxy interplays with the star formation quenching itself.

Previously, I worked on understanding shocked galaxies within Hickson Compact groups, both with CARMA and Herschel, investigating star formation suppression within this set of special galaxies. For my thesis, I mapped the molecular gas in early-type galaxies using CARMA as a member of the the ATLAS3D team. As an undergraduate, I worked on optical follow-up to gamma-ray bursts, primarily with ROTSE.

Other Interests

In a quest for "epic" adventures, I have skydived in Hawaii, roadtripped in a Fiat Panda through the north shore of Tenerife (Canary Islands), picked up hitchhikers in Yellowstone National Park, chased down Calfire fighters to make sure I didn't need to evacuate our science facility, rode horses along the spine of Patagonia and had many more adventures. I scare easily, and love pushing myself through that fear. In more recent years, I’ve taken to exploring every cranny of Maryland and sink myself deep into the worlds of Jules Verne, Jane Austen, and N.K. Jemisin and have even dipped my toes into writing!