My name is Roman! I am a postdoc researcher at the University of Notre Dame. I am fascinated by old stars that formed shortly after the Big Bang, back when the periodic table we know today was still "under construction". The unusual chemistry of these ancient objects reveals the early history of our universe and the origin of chemical elements comprising our very own planet.

My specialty is stellar modelling: I create stars in computer simulations and watch them evolve over time. Unlike real stars, simulations can run through billions of years in mere minutes, while providing the modeler with full control over the initial conditions, akin to a conventional laboratory experiment. Later I compare the properties of these computer models to observations of real stars, obtained with both ground- and spaced-based telescopes, including Hubble and the recently launched JWST.

At Notre Dame, I work with professor Evan Kirby and the Galactic Archaeology Group on the new Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) survey that will use the Subaru telescope in Hawaii to observe thousands of ancient stars in our galaxy and a few of its neighbors. My role involves the development of an analysis framework that will allow us to measure the chemical makeup of these stars.

At times, I also look for cold stars among the oldest objects visible with the unaided eye, contribute to the ongoing search of the very first stars with JWST, and derive constraints on physics beyond the Standard model using astronomical observations.