About Me

My name is Josh Machado. I'm a 2nd year astronomy PhD student at The Ohio State University. I work with Dr. Adam Leroy as a member of the Physics at High Angular Resolution in Nearby Galaxies (PHANGS) team. I study the building blocks of galaxies - giant molecular clouds (GMCs). Specifically, I study how GMCs are distributed across nearby galaxies. This allows us to understand where galaxies are forming stars and how the properties of the galaxies themselves influence this process.

I am also an LSSTc Data Science Fellow. As part of this program, I have the privelege of spending a few weeks every year learning new data science and machine learning techniques used at the cutting edge of astronomy research.

Research

  • GMC Clustering in Nearby Galaxies

    Every star begins its life embedded deep within the depths of a Giant Molecular Cloud (GMC). I am studying the spatial distribution and clustering of GMCs in PHANGS-ALMA galaxies to understand where galaxies form their stars.

    Advisor: Dr. Adam Leroy

  • NH3 Measurements in W51

    Using ammonia data from the VLA, I created temperature, density and velocity maps of W51, a massive star forming region in the Milky Way. I also measured the masses for a catalog of protostellar cores found in this region.

    Advisors: Dr. Cara Battersby & Dr. Adam Ginsburg

Other Projects

Believe it or not, sometimes I have free time. And sometimes I use that free time to work on some other personal, generally non-astronomy related projects.

  • Visualizing running routes from Strava with python
  • 8,192 Magna

Outreach & Education

Astronomy outreach and education is a passion of mine. I have organized and led astronomy outreach programs for hundreds of K-12 and undergraduate students. I have worked as a Teaching Asisstant for severl undergraduate astronomy courses at Ohio State University and I am trained to operate the university planetarium.