Michael Hayden

Michael Hayden is an Assistant Professor in the Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Oklahoma. His research focuses on Galactic Archaeology, studying the formation and evolution of the Milky Way through stellar populations, chemical evolution modeling, and large spectroscopic surveys like GALAH and 4MOST. He has led initiatives such as the GECKOS survey to analyze edge-on galaxies, advancing our understanding of galactic structure and dynamics.

Education: B.S. in Physics from the University of Washington (2010), Ph.D. in Astrophysics from New Mexico State University (2015).

Research Interests: Hayden investigates chemical enrichment patterns, radial migration of stars, and Milky Way disk evolution. He develops models to explain present-day Galactic structure using chemical clocks and large datasets. His work compares the Milky Way to other galaxies, particularly through IFU spectroscopy of edge-on systems to identify kinematic substructures and disk stability mechanisms.

Awards: No explicit prizes or fellowships are listed in the provided texts, though his contributions to major surveys like GALAH and GECKOS reflect significant academic impact.

Grants & Advising: As PI for GALAH and project scientist for 4MOST, Hayden coordinates large collaborative efforts. His research leverages grants supporting spectroscopic surveys and computational modeling. He advises projects on chemical tagging, stellar populations, and extragalactic comparisons.

Labs/Teams: Central to his work are the GALAH survey (studying 800,000 stars), 4MOST (next-gen multi-object spectroscopy), and the GECKOS survey (edge-on galaxy analysis). These projects involve international collaborations to map Galactic and extragalactic structures.