Hello! I'm Maddie Lucey.

I am an NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. My research aims to build our understanding of the early Universe by studying the ancient stars in our Galaxy, the Milky Way. Specifically, I am interested in characterizing the inner regions of the Milky Way, and its oldest stars.

CV Publications (Link to ADS)

My Research Tools

These are the main tools I use to constrain the early Universe.

Stellar Spectroscopy

I use stellar spectroscopy to study nucleosynthesis in the early universe by measuring the chemical composition of ancient stars.

Galactic Dynamics

To get a complete understanding of the origins of ancient stars, I use Galactic dynamics to study how the inner Galaxy formed, including the Galactic Bar.

Data Mining & Machine Learning

My research relies heavily on large astronomy surveys (e.g., Gaia and SDSS) and I frequently use machine learning techniques to push the frontier of what these data can do.

Here’s some of my recent work.

Click on the links below to access the manuscripts.

The most fulfilling part of my job is sharing my passion for physics and astronomy with my community.

In addition to the acitivities listed below, I love mentoring students in research and giving public talks. During grad school, I helped organize the Astronomy on Tap event in Austin and now love to speak at other chapter's events.