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//July[0]=["23","Priti Shah","Utah","Monocular Measurement of the Ultra High Energy Cosmic Ray Spectrum","no abstract","Local","Special Day","10:30am"];
//August[0]=["31","He Ap","Utah","Fun with HEAP","I will talk about fun.","Mr Heap","",""];
//August[0]=["30","TBD","","TBD","TBD","TBD","","","11:00am"]
September[0]=["6","Hong Guo","Utah","The Halo Occupation Distribution Modeling of the Clustering of BOSS Galaxies","We use the halo occupation distribution to model the clustering of SDSS-III DR10 BOSS CMASS galaxies at z=0.4-0.7. We specifically model the luminosity and color dependence of the clustering. We find that the luminosity dependence of the clustering is caused by the change of the host halo masses, while the color dependence is due to the variation in the satellite fractions. We also use this model to test the assumption of NFW distribution of galaxies in the halos, and find that the NFW distribution is not appropriate for some luminous red galaxies.","TBD","","","11:00am"]
September[1]=["13","Tareq AbuZayyad","Utah","Cerenkov Events Seen by The TALE Air Fluorescence Detector","The Telescope Array Low-Energy Extension (TALE) is a hybrid, Air Fluorescence Detector (FD) Scintillator Array, designed to study cosmic ray initiated showers at energies above ~3x10^16 eV. Located in the western Utah desert, the TALE FD is comprised of 10 telescopes which cover the elevation range 31-58 deg in addition to 14 telescopes with elevation coverage of 3-31 deg.  As with all other FD's, a subset of the shower events recorded by TALE are ones for which the Cerenkov light produced by the shower particles dominates the total observed light signal.  In fact, for the telescopes with higher elevation coverage, low energy Cerenkov events form the vast majority of triggered cosmic ray events.  In the typical FD data analysis procedure, this subset of events is discarded and only events for which the majority of signal photons come from air fluorescence are kept.  In this talk I will report on a study to reconstruct the 'Cerenkov Events' seen by the high elevation viewing telescopes of TALE.  Monte Carlo studies and a first look at real events seen by TALE look very promising.  Even as a monocular detector, the geometrical reconstruction method employed in this analysis allows for a pointing accuracy on the order of a degree.  Also, based on preliminary Monte Carlo studies, the expected energy resolution is better than 25%.  Early indications are that it may be possible to extend the low energy reach of TALE to below 10^16 eV.  This would be the first time a detector designed specifically as an air fluorescence detector is used as an imaging Cerenkov detector.","Local","","","11:00am"]
September[2]=["20","John Belz","Utah","Current and Future Directions in Utah-Based Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray Research","In 2008, Utah's High Resolution Fly's Eye (HiRes) observatory discovered the long-sought GZK suppression at the end of the cosmic ray energy spectrum. This observation was subsequently confirmed by the Pierre Auger Observatory (Argentina) and the Telescope Array (TA) in Utah. With this feature firmly established, the next challenge for the field is the interpretation of spectral features in the light of chemical composition studies. The ultimate challenge lies in identifying the sources of the Universe's most energetic particles through studies of arrival direction anisotropy, a breakthrough that would indicate the onset of the era of cosmic ray astronomy. In this talk, I describe how the University of Utah cosmic ray group is attacking these challenges. I describe ongoing Telescope Array composition and anisotropy studies, as well as efforts to expand TA's reach with a low-energy extension (TALE) and a planned fourfold increase in surface detector aperture. I describe my own work to increase the reach of cosmic ray observatories using bistatic radar technology. I conclude by describing how we can enhance the value of astroparticle physics research by means of novel and unanticipated uses for large cosmic ray detectors.","Local","","INSCC Auditorium","11:00am"]
September[3]=["27","Raphael Sadoun","Utah","N-body modeling of the Giant Andromeda Stream","Recent deep optical observations in the outskirts of our closest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy (M31), have revealed the presence of several tidal structures, including an extended giant stellar stream. Since tidal streams are expected to be common features during galaxy interactions, the presence of such structures is a strong indicator for recent merger activity. In this talk, I present a numerical study aimed at modeling the merger event that produced the giant stream in M31. In particular, I propose a new cosmologically motivated scenario in which the stream originates from the tidal disruption of a dark matter rich satellite accreted from a large distance on a highly eccentric orbit. Using N-body simulations, I show how one can use observations of the stream to put constraints on the progenitor galaxy and the orbital parameters of the interaction.","Local","","","11:00am"]
October[0]=["1","Joe Jensen","UVU","Towards a 1% Measurement of the Hubble Constant Using IR Surface Brightness Fluctuations","The accuracy with which we understand cosmology has always been dominated by systematic errors. Cosmic microwave background measurements with WMAP and Planck are providing powerful constraints on cosmological parameters, but their Achilles heel is still the Hubble constant (Ho), without which many interesting parameters such as the cosmological equation of state and the masses and numbers of relativistic neutrinos are still poorly determined. Independent knowledge of Ho to 1% accuracy is an essential requirement for full understanding of cosmology and its implications for particle physics. Two high precision methods for determining Ho are currently popular: type Ia supernovae in the Hubble flow calibrated using Cepheids in nearby galaxies, and baryon acoustic oscillations with a zeropoint derived from calculations of the sound speed on the surface of last scattering. I will discuss another way to calibrate the extragalactic distance scale using infrared surface brightness fluctuations (SBF), atechnique with accuracies comparable to the supernova technique anduseful for a wide variety of galaxies and environments. Stable, low background, high spatial resolution images from HST are capable of producing a 3% measurement of the Hubble constant. This is a significant step towards the goal of measuring Ho to 1% precision, and most importantly, it is independent of the other two methods and provides a critical check for systematic errors. I will also talk about how the IR SBF technique is used to break the age/metallicity degeneracy and gain insight into the stellar populations of galaxies without having to resolve individual stars.","Anil Seth","","Special Date!","11:00am"]
October[1]=["4","Jason Steffen","Northwestern","Exoplanet insights into the origins of planetary systems","n recent years, our long-standing models of the birth and life of planetary systems have been challenged. Studies of small bodies in our solar system show that the current locations of the giant planets are materially different from where they were formed.  The initial exoplanet discoveries of hot Jupiters were just the first in a number of clues that indicated that planetary systems often undergo dramatic rearrangement of their orbits. Therefore, much of the information about planetary formation that was encoded in the original architectures of planetary systems has been altered by their subsequent evolution. Dynamical studies of planetary systems reveal their histories and allow us to make the connections to their past.  I will present recent results from NASA's Kepler mission and discuss how they, and dynamical studies of future data on these and similar systems can give important insights into the formation and dynamical evolution of planetary systems generally.","TBD","","","11:00am"]
October[2]=["11","Anja Feldmeier","European Southern Obs.","The Milky Way Nuclear Star Cluster Beyond 1 pc","TBD","Anil Seth","","","11:00am"]
//October[2]=["18","TBD","","TBD","TBD","TBD","","","11:00am"]
October[3]=["23","Francis Halzen","Wisconsin","Evidence for High-Energy Extraterrestrial Neutrinos at the IceCube Detector","Construction and commissioning of the cubic-kilometer IceCube neutrino detector and its low energy extension DeepCore have been completed. The instrument detects neutrinos over a wide energy range: from 10 GeV atmospheric neutrinos to 1010 GeV cosmogenic neutrinos. We will describe initial results based on a subsample of the more than 300,000 neutrino events recorded during construction. We will emphasize the measurement of the high-energy atmospheric neutrino spectrum and the search for the still enigmatic sources of the Galactic and extragalactic cosmic rays. Finally, we will discuss how the first data taken with the completed detector have revealed a flux of extraterrestrial neutrinos.","Gordon Thomson","","Special Date! INSCC Auditorium","11:00am"]
November[0]=["1","David Yaylali","Hawaii","Multicomponent Dark Matter; Correlating Scattering Rates with Dark Sector Instability","Recent developments have suggested that the dark sector may be much more complex than previously imagined.  As a result, models such as Dynamical Dark Matter --- in which there are multiple semi-stable dark matter components which contribute non-trivially to $\Omega_{\rm CDM}$ --- merit further study.  One interesting potential signal which arises in such contexts stems from the possibility of the inelastic scattering of heavier states into lighter states at direct-detection experiments.  The operators which allow such behavior also permit heavier dark-matter states to decay to lighter dark-matter states plus visible matter.  Thus, these models offer the intriguing possibility of actually correlating the bounds from direct detection (scattering) and indirect detection (decay).  In this talk I will describe the results of a model-independent analysis of the constraints on decaying dark matter within the region of parameter space relevant for inelastic scattering.","Pearl Sandick","","","11:00am"]
November[1]=["8","Ludmila Levkova","Utah","The properties of quark-gluon plasma from Lattice QCD","The quark-gluon plasma is a state of matter which forms only at extremely high temperatures or densities. It is believed that up to microseconds after the big bang the quark-gluon plasma was a dominant component of the universe. This primordial state of matter is recreated in heavy-ion collision experiments (conducted at facilities such as RHIC and LHC), which study its formation and transition to ordinary matter. The equation of state of the quark-gluon plasma is essential to our understanding of its hydrodynamic expansion and consequently of the particle spectra produced in these experiments. It is also relevant for the study of cosmology and compact star formation. I present results for the quark-gluon equation of state determined from lattice QCD, which is the only nonperturbative method currently allowing a first principle calculation of its properties.","Local","","","11:00am"]
November[2]=["15","Denise Stephens","BYU","Brown Dwarfs, Transiting Planets, and Star Forming Regions","At BYU I am striving to find ways to include undergraduate students in meaningful research by making use of easily available archival data and our 16 and 36 inch telescopes.  There resources have been used to drive three main research projects that I am currently involved in.  I will first talk about my use of archival HST data to look for binary brown dwarf systems.  I will also talk about past brown dwarf atmosphere research that was done with the Spitzer telescope, and what kind of research we will want to do in the future on the atmospheres of the coolest Y dwarfs and the directly imaged extrasolar planets.  I will then switch discussion to a project to support the discovery of planets through transit timing observations that are currently being taken at BYU with our 16 inch telescope and 36 inch telescope.  This data is being taken and reduced primarily by undergraduate students.  Finally I will highlight research done by Tabitha Buehler as a graduate student here at BYU that made use of Spitzer archival data.  Now that Tabitha is at the University of Utah there is potential to continue this work through collaboration with students at the U of U.","Anil Seth","","","11:00am"]
November[3]=["22","Jordi Miralda-Escude","Barcelona","Large-Scale Structure in the intergalactic medium and the formation of galaxies: What we are learning from BOSS in SDSS-III","The Baryon acoustic OScillations Survey in SDSS-III is obtaining more than one hundred thousand absorption spectra of quasars at redshift z>2. This opens a new window for studies of large-scale structure at high redshift, which has resulted in the detection of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation peak at these redshifts, using absorption of intergalactic gas. Cross-correlations of the Lyman alpha absorption with other objects, among them Damped Lyman Alpha absorption systems as tracers of high-redshift galaxies,reveals their spatial distribution and provides new clues on how galaxies were forming at this epoch, when the universe was about 3 billion years old.","Zheng Zheng","","","11:00am"]
December[0]=["6","Yue Shen","Carnegie","Searching for Sub-Parsec Binary Supermassive Black Holes with Time-Domain Spectroscopy","Sub-parsec binary supermassive black holes (BBHs) are predicted products of hierarchical galaxy mergers, and are of great interest to both galaxy formation studies and gravitational physics. Finding these systems in the EM domain, however, is challenging given the stringent spatial resolution requirement. Peculiar spectroscopic features of the broad emission lines of quasars have been used to identify spatially-unresolved sub-pc BBH candidates. But followup spectroscopic monitoring of these candidates is required to confirm their binary nature. I will review the current status of searching for sub-pc BBHs in quasars with this spectroscopic technique, and describe our long-term effort in searching for such objects in the era of massive spectroscopic surveys.","Zheng Zheng","","","11:00am"]
December[1]=["13","Yin-Zhe Ma","British Columbia","The density and velocity field of galaxies","The density and peculiar velocity field are the two major tools of astronomers to probe the large scale structure of the Universe. Recently, the observations of the galaxies in our local volume and cosmic microwave background radiation can give us new advances to probe the nature of dark matter and growth of structure. In this talk, I will address three major issues on this topics on different scales: (a) Testing the prediction of standard LCDM cosmology with the observed density and velocity fields on scales of 10-100 Mpc of our local volume; (b) Weighting the mass of the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy and measuring the quadruple structure of the local group on scales of 1-3 Mpc; (c) Observing the galaxy clusters through Sunyaev-Zeldvoich effect, and searching for the missing baryons on galaxy clusters scales (d >> 100 Mpc). I will further discuss what are the implications of these current studies.","Yong-Shi Wu","","","11:00am"]
January[0]=["3","Marcos Santander","Wisconsin","The high-energy cosmic-ray sky as seen by IceCube, IceTop and AMANDA","TBD","Dave Kied","","","10:30am"]
January[1]=["10","John Krizmanic","NASA/GSFC","The CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET): a High-Energy Astroparticle Physics Observatory on the International Space Station","CALET is a Japanese-led, multinational experiment that is scheduled to launch in 2014 to be attached to the Exposure Facility of the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM-EF) on the ISS. During its 5-year mission, CALET will measure the fluxes of electrons/positrons from 1 GeV to 20 TeV, gamma rays from 10 GeV to 10 TeV, and nuclei (Z=1 to 40) from 10 GeV to 1000 TeV. These measurements will address CALET's scientific goals to search for signatures of dark matter, investigate the mechanism of cosmic-ray acceleration and propagation in the Galaxy, and search for nearby astrophysical sources of high-energy electrons. The main CALET instrument (CAL) is comprised of three modules: 1) two layers of segmented plastic scintillators for cosmic-ray charge identification (CHD), 2) a 3 X0-thick tungsten plate/scintillating fiber imaging calorimeter (IMC), and 3) and a 27 X0-thick, segmented lead-tungstate calorimeter (TASC). The IMC and TASC provide measurements of the longitudinal and lateral shower development, yielding excellent electron/hadron separation. CALET also includes a dedicated Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (CGBM) instrument. This talk will present the scientific motivation for the CALET mission, describe the instrument configuration and performance, discuss the CALET cosmic radiation measurement capability, and review the CALET mission status.","Doug Bergman","","","10:30am"]
January[2]=["14","Rasha Abbasi","Wisconsin","The IceCube observatory and galactic cosmic ray anisotropy","TBD","John Belz","INSCC Auditorium","Special Time","9:30am"]
January[3]=["17","Kai Martens","IPMU","TBD","TBD","","","","10:30am"]
January[4]=["24","Jason Kalirai","STScI","Frontier Science with the James Webb Space Telescope","The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be the most powerful space telescope that astronomers have ever constructed, and it is a critical step towards answering the top science questions outlined in the recent Astronomy 2010 - 2020 Decadal Survey.  In this talk, I will begin by summarizing the current status of the JWST project and some of the recent milestones that have been achieved, including the completion of all of the JWST mirror segments and the delivery of the science instruments from international partners to NASA.  I will then discuss a few of the fundamental science cases that are uniquely enabled by JWST's unprecedented sensitivity (10 minute exposures will detect M dwarfs with V = 30 at S/N = 5) and superb resolution (diffraction limited at 2, 4, and 7+ microns).  These include core science drivers such as the measurement of the first galaxies in the Universe and the tracing of galaxy growth through our cosmic history, as well as the first high-resolution exquisite spectroscopic characterization of dense environments in the Milky Way galaxy.  I will also discuss entirely new scientific frontiers with JWST, such as the potential to characterize the atmospheres of nearby habitable zone exoplanets.","Anil Seth","","INSCC Auditorium","10:30am"]
January[5]=["31","Kristina Barkume","Arete Associates","A Giant Collision on a Dwarf Planet","In the past decade, comprehensive studies of the trans-Neptunian region have increased our understanding of the formation and evolution of the outer Solar System. Wide-field searches for Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), such as the Palomar Distant Solar System Survey, have yielded a far greater number of bright objects suitable for deeper investigations with large telescopes. These observations reveal a varied and complex history for the KBOs. The discovery a collisional family associated with the dwarf planet Haumea provides a unique opportunity to study the role of catastrophic collisions in the final stages of planet formation and the dynamical history of our solar system.  I will discuss the giant impact that formed the unusual Haumea system, its collisional family, and the implications for understanding the KBO population.","Adam Bolton","INSCC Auditorium","","10:30am"]
February[0]=["7","Jo Bovy","IAS","The chemo-dynamical structure of the Milky Way","Observations of the structure and dynamics of different stellar populations in the Milky Way's disk provide a unique perspective on disk formation, evolution, and dynamics. I will review our current knowledge of the chemo-orbital structure of the disk and its implications for our understanding of how the Milky Way formed and evolved. In particular, I will show recent results from a dissection into mono-abundance populations (MAPs) of the Galactic disk based on SDSS/SEGUE data. These results show that the individual components are simple, but exhibit very different spatial and kinematic structure, with important implications for the formation and evolution of the Milky Way's disk. I will further present a new dynamical measurement of the MW's surface density between 4 and 10 kpc, obtained by rigorous 3-integral modeling of the vertical kinematics of MAPs. Combined with the latest measurements of the MW's rotation curve, this allows us to separate the disk and halo contributions to the gravitational potential and to measure the mass of the MW's stellar disk.","Adam Bolton","","","10:30am"]
February[1]=["13","Jason Evans","Minnesota","Pure Gravity Mediation","If low energy supersymmetry is realized in nature, the apparent discovery of a Higgs boson with mass around 125 GeV suggests a supersymmetric mass spectrum in the TeV or multi-TeV range. Multi-TeV scalar masses are a necessary component of supersymmetric models with pure gravity mediation or in any model with strong moduli stabilization. The simplest model of pure gravity mediation contains only two free parameters: the gravitino mass and $\tan \beta$. Scalar masses are universal at some high energy renormalization scale and gaugino masses are determined through anomalies and depend on the gravitino mass and the gauge couplings.  This theory requires a relatively large gravitino mass ( m_{3/2} \gtrsim 300 TeV) and a limited range in tan  beta \simeq 1.7--2.5. By allowing for non-unversalities in the Higgs soft masses, the allowed range in tan beta is greatly increased which then permits smallers values of m_{3/2} and makes dectection of the gluino at the LHC possible. Furthermore, if one adopts a no-scale or partial no-scale structure for the Kahler manifold, sfermion masses may vanish at the tree level. It is usually assumed that the leading order anomaly mediated contribution to scalar masses appears at 2-loops. However, there are at least two possible sources for 1-loop scalar masses. These may arise if Pauli-Villars fields are introduced as messengers  of supersymmetry breaking.  We consider the consequences of a spectrum in which the scalar masses associated with the third generation are heavy (order $m_{3/2}$) with 1-loop scalar masses for the first two generations. A similar spectrum is expected to arise in GUT models based on $E_7/SO(10)$ where the first two generations of scalars act as pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons. Explicit breaking of this symmetry by the gauge couplings then generates one-loop masses for the first two generations. In particular, we show that it may be possible to reconcile the $g_\mu - 2$ discrepancy with potentially observable scalars and gauginos at the LHC.","Pearl Sandick","INSCC 345","Note Special Day","10:30am"]

February[2]=["14","Jenny Greene","Princeton","To Build an Elliptical Galaxy","I discuss two essential aspects of elliptical galaxy formation: how they get their stars, and how they lose their gas.  For the former, I use integral-field observations of local massive galaxies to study the stellar populations and kinematics of stars at large radius, to understand the origin of the size growth of elliptical galaxies. Then I focus on black hole feedback as a means of clearing gas from massive galaxies.  I show that luminous obscured quasars have ubiquitous, round ionized outflows with very high gas dispersions of nearly 1000km/s out to 20 kpc, that may in fact be responsible for clearing ellipticals of their gas.","Anil Seth","","","10:30am"]
February[3]=["21","Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz","UC Santa Cruz","Characterizing  Massive Black Holes through Stellar Tidal Disruption","A star interacting with a massive black hole cannot be treated as a point mass if its gets o close to the black hole that it becomes vulnerable to tidal distortions and even disruption. When a rapidly changing tidal force starts to compete with a star's self-gravity, the material of the star responds on a complicated way. This phenomenon poses an as yet unmet challenge to computer simulations.  The art of modeling the tidal disruption of stars by massive black holes forms the main theme of my talk.  Detailed simulations should tell us what happen when stars of di#erent types get tidally disrupted, and what radiation a distant observer might detect as the observational signature of such events.","Anil Seth","","","10:30am"]
February[4]=["28","Daniel Weisz","UC Santa Cruz","The Star Formation Histories of Local Group Dwarf Galaxies","I will present my recent work on uniformly measuring the star formation histories (SFHs) of 40 Local Group dwarf galaxies based on archival Hubble Space Telescope imaging.  The galaxy sample spans a wide range in stellar mass (10^4 < M< 10^9 Msun) and includes all morphological types found in the Local Group, making it among the best available sample for studying the evolution of low mass galaxies.  In the context of these SFHs, I will explore various mechanisms and timescales that are associated with the quenching of star formation in dwarf galaxies including reionization, ram pressure stripping, and tidal interactions.  I will also discuss tensions between the SFHs of LG dwarfs and those derived from SDSS spectroscopic studies and from recent models of SFHs that were constrained using data from the higher redshift universe.  These disagreements may have broad implications for our understanding of low mass galaxy formation, such as larger than expected star formation efficiencies at high redshifts.  Finally, I will present preliminary comparisons between the Local Group SFHs and those from state-of-the-art simulations of low mass galaxies, and will discuss future efforts to increase synergy between observations and theory.","Anil Seth","","","10:30am"]
March[0]=["7","Mariska Kriek","UC Berkeley","Reconstructing the Formation Histories of Massive Galaxies","In past years, large and deep photometric and spectroscopic surveys have significantly advanced our understanding of galaxy growth, from the most active time in the universe (z~2) to the present day. In particular, the evolution in stellar mass, star formation rate, and structure of complete galaxy samples have provided independent and complementary insights into their formation histories. In addition, detailed studies of the properties of distant galaxies have lead to a better apprehension of the physical processes which govern galaxy growth. Nonetheless, many outstanding questions remain. In this talk I will give an overview of our current picture of galaxy growth in the past 11 billion years, discuss current challenges and outstanding questions, and introduce new and future efforts to further unravel the formation histories of massive galaxies.","Anil Seth","","","10:30am"]
March[1]=["21","Nate McCrady","Montana","Project Minerva: Small Exoplanets from Small Telescopes","The Kepler mission has identified over 3000 candidate planets in the past two years, adding to the over 800 confirmed planets from radial velocity (RV) surveys. One of the most striking results of these surveys is that the number of planets increases rapidly with decreasing size. It is apparent that there are more small, rocky planets in the Galaxy than stars. These planets must be common around nearby stars, though few have yet been discovered. Finding these planets requires high precision RV measurements and high cadence observing to densely sample the orbital phase. Project Minerva is a robotic observatory dedicated to detection of rocky planets in the habitable zone around nearby stars. The observatory will consist of four 0.7-m telescopes that will use fiber optics to simultaneously feed a stable spectrograph to perform an intense campaign of precise velocimetry on the brightest, nearest, Sun-like stars. I will present simulated Minerva observations to estimate our expected exoplanet yield and habitable zone planet detections.","Adam Bolton","","","10:30am"]
March[2]=["28","Brad Cenko","NASA/GSFC","TBD","TBD","TBD","","","10:30am"]
April[0]=["4","Seminar Cancelled","","TBD","TBD","TBD","","","10:30am"]
April[1]=["11","Hee-Jong Seo","LBL","High precision cosmology and large scale structure.","The large scale structure of galaxies contains important information on the evolution of the Universe. Baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), which is one of the most promising large scale features, can provide an excellent standard ruler that enables us to measure the cosmological distance scales, and therefore dark energy properties. In addition, an anisotropy in the large scale structure provides a way to test the nature of gravity. In this talk, I will discuss important results of the recent BOSS galaxy survey including a new constraint on the neutrino mass.","Kyle Dawson","","","10:30am"]
April[2]=["18","Alice Shapley","UCLA","Rest-frame Optical Spectra: A Window into Galaxy Formation at z~2","Rest-frame optical spectroscopy provides basic insight into the stellar and gaseous contents of galaxies. Until now, our knowledge of the rest-frame optical spectroscopic properties of galaxies at 1.5<=z<=3.5 has been extremely limited, despite the critical importance of this cosmic epoch for the assembly of galaxies and the growth of black holes. The recent commissioning of the MOSFIRE spectrograph on the Keck I telescope represents a major development for the study of the rest-frame optical properties of high-redshift galaxies. The MOSFIRE Deep Evolution Field (MOSDEF) Survey fully exploits the new capabilities of MOSFIRE, charting the evolution of the rest-frame optical spectra for ~2000 galaxies in three distinct redshift intervals spanning 1.5<=z<=3.5 -- more than an order of magnitude improvement over existing surveys. With MOSDEF, we address key questions including: What are the physical processes driving star formation in individual galaxies? How do galaxies exchange gas and heavy elements with the intergalactic medium? How are stellar mass and structure assembled in galaxies (in situ star formation vs. mergers)? What is the nature of the co-evolution of black holes and stellar populations? In this talk I will present early science results from the MOSDEF survey regarding galaxy chemical abundances and the physical conditions in high-redshift star-forming regions.","Zheng Zheng","","","10:30am"]