Lachlan Lancaster, Ph.D.

Lachlan Lancaster will be joining the Department of Astronomy at Columbia University where he will be working with Professor Greg Bryan on understanding the formation and evolution of star clusters. Lachlan received his B.S. in physics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2016 and went on to the University of Cambridge where he participated in Part III of the Mathematical Tripos. Lachlan is currently finishing his Ph.D. at Princeton University where he has worked on a number of topics in theoretical astrophysics, including cosmology, exotic dark matter models and galactic dynamics. His thesis work has focused on the role that high velocity winds from massive stars play in regulating the process of star formation within the giant clouds of interstellar gas where stars form. The crux of this work has been a re-modelling of how these winds behave when they interact with the inhomogeneous clouds where they are found. This interaction gives rise to a turbulent mixing layer with a fractal structure, which drastically alters the dynamics of the winds. The long-term goals of Lachlan’s work are to better understand how so-called ‘feedback’ from massive stars along with turbulent structure in interstellar gas acts to regulate the formation of stars and star clusters.