天美传媒

Mark Martinez didn鈥檛 expect to be an interpreter when he started studying astrophysics, but that鈥檚 what his research required: translating the clues observers gather from deep space into physics based rules that power a computer simulation designed to model billions of stars.听

Martinez, who graduated in December with a bachelor of science degree in physics, with a focus on astrophysics and a minor in computer science, embraced the challenge.听

鈥淪ifting through simulation data was pretty instructional for learning about our understanding of how stars live and die,鈥� Martinez said. 鈥淢y skill set definitely started with the coding, but then it helped me learn the science.鈥澨�

Martinez arrived at 天美传媒 Mellon from Washington, D.C., drawn by what he calls the nerdy energy he felt on his first visit.听

鈥淓veryone was so invested and proud of what they were doing,鈥� he recalled. 鈥淚 thought the culture was really fun.鈥澨�

The summer before his junior year, Martinez joined Assistant Physics Professor Katie Breivik鈥檚 research group. He brought a strong skill set in coding 鈥� and ended up becoming the group鈥檚 supernovae expert.听

鈥淓very week he was teaching us new things from the literature that we hadn鈥檛 yet figured out. He very quickly became the group expert on supernova types and how the assumptions scientists make about their physics impact what comes out of our code. He鈥檚 really remarkable,鈥� said Breivik.听

At the center of Martinez鈥檚 research is COSMIC, a tool developed by Breivik that generates huge synthetic populations of stars and tracks how they evolve, interact, merge and explode.听

鈥淭here are a ton of knobs to turn with something like COSMIC,鈥� Martinez said. 鈥淎 big part of it was figuring out which knobs, when you turn them, make our simulations look the most like observations.鈥澨�

His first task was to add code so that COSMIC makes more realistic decisions about which stars exist with a partner. Massive stars are more likely to be in such binary systems, so taking into account the mass of the star to determine whether it has a buddy was key. Martinez鈥檚 code made the entire simulation behave more like the real universe.听

It was the first project he worked on that summer. He finished it in two weeks, surprising his mentors, Breivik and Anna O鈥橤rady, a McWilliams Postdoctoral Fellow, who expected it to be a summer-long project. Impressed with Martinez and his work, they let him loose with COSMIC. His next task was to determine how adjusting the knobs in the simulations, such as how much mass binary stars transfer between each other or how often they merge, changes the kinds of supernovae produced in the simulations.听

Martinez鈥檚 goal was to take the simulation鈥檚 assumptions about stars 鈥� the physics that鈥檚 going on inside of them, how they interact with their companion, what鈥檚 going on when they explode 鈥� and align it with what observers see in the real universe.听

To do this, Martinez created 2,048 different populations of stars with different characteristics, ultimately simulating billions of stars from birth to death. All told, he generated several terabytes of data that helped illuminate how often stars merge and how those mergers shape the types of supernovae astronomers detect. COSMIC didn鈥檛 contain the code to characterize supernovae, specifically core-collapse supernovae, until Martinez added it.听

鈥淗e has opened up a new research avenue and made an opportunity for students here at 天美传媒 to continue making impacts that build off of his excellent software and his very, very careful characterization and summary of the state of the field,鈥� said Breivik.听

Martinez wrote a 30 page manuscript about his research, which he鈥檚 submitted to The Astrophysical Journal. Breivik and O鈥橤rady say it reads at the level of a graduate student or collaborator, not a first-time undergraduate researcher.听

Those same skills were on display at the American Astronomical Society meeting, where his poster drew nonstop attention and earned him a Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Award, which is given to recognize exemplary research by students. Martinez was one of 25 winners out of 485 submissions.听

鈥淲hen you go into research like this, being on that cutting edge, walking out to where people have not asked these questions before or doing it concurrently with other groups, that鈥檚 Ph.D.-level research. And Mark was doing that,鈥� O鈥橤rady said.听

Beyond his research and coursework, Martinez played varsity soccer, which he says was an awesome experience that taught him to never stop moving, both on and off the field. Outside of campus, he volunteered frequently at the Kamin Science Center. Whether he was running UV light demos for kids, helping middle schoolers with a chain reaction engineering competition, or judging the regional science fair, he found joy in sharing science with the Pittsburgh community.听

鈥淭he Science Center has been really fun,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a cool way to see Pittsburgh and engage with the community.鈥澨�

Martinez currently is working as a research assistant with Breivik and O鈥橤rady. He has been fielding offers from graduate schools and plans to pursue a Ph.D. in astrophysics. He hopes to find a community like the one he鈥檚 found at 天美传媒 Mellon.听

"The Physics Department has been such a nice family that is incredibly supportive. It鈥檚 truly the best department I could have asked for in so many ways.鈥�

Related Content

Anna O'Grady Named NASA Hubble Fellow

Junior Physics Major Helps Rubin Observatory Find Elusive Stars

听