Emilie Burnham, Astrophysicist

I am a PhD candidate in Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State University, where I study galaxy formation and evolution under the supervision of Dr. Joel Leja. My research focuses on using statistical inference and machine learning to understand the physical properties of galaxies from their spectra, both as individual systems and as entire populations.

This work is driven by a new generation of astronomical surveys. Space-based observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) allow us to probe the earliest galaxies during cosmic dawn, while next-generation ground-based instruments such as the Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) will provide an unprecedented view of galaxy evolution during cosmic noon. To meet the challenges posed by these large datasets, I develop accelerated software tools that enable astronomers to efficiently infer the histories and physical properties of millions of galaxies.

I am a member of the PFS Galaxy Evolution (GE) collaboration. With its remarkable multiplexing capabilities, PFS GE will obtain spectra for more than half a million galaxies spanning roughly six billion years of cosmic time. As part of the low-redshift working group, I help develop the data pipeline that will fit these observations and create large catalogs of stellar population properties, enabling new studies of galaxy evolution on a population-level scale.

A central focus of my research is understanding the burstiness of star formation in high-redshift galaxies. In particular, I am interested in how we can quantify this behavior and designing future JWST surveys capable of measuring this robustly.

Outside of astronomy, I enjoy spending hours experimenting in the kitchen, reading books far too large to in my bag, and writing stories of my own.

Selected Publications

• It's More Complicated Than You Think: A Forward Model to Infer the Recent Star Formation History, Bursty or Not, of Galaxy Populations (2026).