Rongjun Huang (黄镕钧)

About

I am a PhD student at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), The University of Western Australia (2025–2029). My research focuses on galaxy evolution, spatially-resolved star formation, and environmental effects in clusters.

Education

• The University of Western Australia — ICRAR, Crawley, WA, Australia
  PhD student — Doctor of Philosophy (2025–2029)
  Thesis: Environmental effects on spatially-resolved star formation and interstellar medium properties in the Virgo Cluster
  Supervisor: Prof. Luca Cortese
• The Australian National University — Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Weston Creek, ACT, Australia
  M.Sc — Master of Science (Advanced), Astronomy and Astrophysics (June 2024), GPA 7/7 (Commendation)
  Thesis: Negative metallicity gradient in galactic outflows based on QED simulations
  Supervisor: Prof. Mark Krumholz
• The Australian National University — Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Weston Creek, ACT, Australia
  H.Sc — Bachelor of Science (Honours), Astronomy and Astrophysics (December 2022), First Class Honours (H1, 82/100)
  Thesis: Exploring the intrinsic scatter of the star-forming galaxy main sequence at redshift 0.5 to 3.0
  Supervisor: Dr. Andrew Battisti
• The Australian National University — Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Acton, ACT, Australia
  B.Sc — Bachelor of Science, Astronomy and Astrophysics (June 2021), GPA 5.6/7
  Thesis: Using MAGPHYS+photo-z to characterise the properties of star-forming galaxies
  Supervisor: Dr. Andrew Battisti

Research

• PhD thesis (2025–2029): Environmental effects on spatially-resolved star formation and interstellar medium properties in the Virgo Cluster. Supervisor: Prof. Luca Cortese
• Interests: galaxy evolution; star formation; spatially-resolved ISM diagnostics; environmental quenching and transformation.

First-author Publications

1. MAUVE–MUSE: The origin of the spatially-resolved mass–metallicity relation’s secondary dependence on star formation rate surface density
   Rongjun Huang, Luca Cortese, MAUVE Collaboration. 2026. (In prep.)
2. Quokka-based understanding of outflows (QED) — IV. Limitations of Hα as an outflow diagnostic
   Rongjun Huang, Aditi Vijayan, Mark R. Krumholz. 2026. MNRAS (Submitted).
   DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2511.05056
3. Quokka-based understanding of outflows (QED) — II. X-ray metallicity gradients as a signature of galactic wind metal loading
   Rongjun Huang, Aditi Vijayan, Mark R. Krumholz. 2025. MNRAS 539(2), 1723–1737.
   DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staf593 (Citations: 1, per NASA/ADS)
4. Exploring the intrinsic scatter of the star-forming galaxy main sequence at redshift 0.5 to 3.0
   Rongjun Huang, Andrew J. Battisti, Kathryn Grasha, Elisabete da Cunha, Claudia del P Lagos, Sarah K. Leslie & Emily Wisnioski. 2023. MNRAS 520(1), 446–460.
   DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stad108 (Citations: 11, per NASA/ADS)

Granted Observation

Anatomy of a fall: Dissecting the environment-driven transformation of late-type Virgo cluster galaxies with HST UV-optical imaging of star clusters, associations, and HII regions
Co-PI — Hubble Space Telescope (HST) — 145 orbits (~108.8 hr)

Observing Experience

• Extremely Metal Poor Stars in Milky Way — ANU 2.3m Telescope, Siding Spring Observatory (SSO), NSW, Australia (September 2019; 3 nights)
• GALAH survey (2024A) — Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT), SSO, NSW, Australia (July 2024; remote via Mount Stromlo Observatory observation room)

HPC Experience

• NCI / Gadi — Project jh2: Star Formation and Feedback in a Turbulent Interstellar Medium (2023–present)
• Pawsey / Setonix — Pawsey0807 (2023–present)
• Swinburne / OzSTAR — IFS Data Analysis (oz084) (2025–present)
• CADC / CANFAR — Multiphase Astrophysics to Unveil the Virgo Environment (MAUVE) (2025–present)

Software Development

• The nGIST Pipeline — a galaxy IFS analysis pipeline for modern IFS data
  https://github.com/geckos-survey/ngist
• Post-processing pipeline for Quokka simulation code as part of the yt frontend
  https://github.com/chongchonghe/yt/tree/Rongjun-ANUquokka-frontend

Internship

The Stability of the WiFeS Instrument on the ANU 2.3-Metre Robotic Telescope
Supervisor: A/Prof. Chris Lidman
ANU 2.3m Telescope, Siding Spring Observatory (SSO), NSW, Australia (01/29/2024–02/16/2024)

Professional Affiliations

Member (Student) — ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), Australia (2020–2024)

Conference Talks

• Exploring the intrinsic scatter of the star-forming galaxy main sequence at redshift 0.5 to 3.0
  R. Huang — 2022 ASTRO 3D Science Meeting, Burnley, VIC, Australia (Talk; June 2022)
• Sparkler Talk (1-min): Intrinsic scatter of the star-forming galaxy main sequence
  R. Huang — 2023 ASTRO 3D Science Meeting, Freemantle, WA, Australia (Talk; June 2023)

Grants & Awards

• UWA Data Institute Awards 2025 Travel Grants: 2000 AUD (December 2025)
• ASTRO 3D travel funds: 100 AUD (June 2022)
• ASTRO 3D travel funds: 1500 AUD (June 2023)

Language

Pearson Test of English (PTE) Academic
Overall 81: Listening 83, Reading 74, Speaking 90, Writing 80 (Australia, 03 Jul 2024)

Professional Skills

• Advanced experience with large astrophysical datasets (integral-field spectroscopy, simulations) and statistical modelling.
• Daily user of Python (NumPy, SciPy, Astropy, Matplotlib, Jupyter), with HPC workflows and automated analysis pipelines.
• Comfortable with Mathematica, MATLAB, IDL, Emacs, DS9, ImageJ, LaTeX/BibTeX, Markdown, and office suites.

Download

Download my resume: Resume.pdf

Photo Gallery

With Supervisor Dr. Andrew Battisti (2024)

With Prof. Brian Schmidt (Honours graduation, 2022)

Me (2020)