Iryna Butsky

Academic employment

DuBridge Postdoctoral Scholar in Theoretical Astrophysics, Caltech 10/2021 - present
Research Mentor: Phil Hopkins

Research Analyst, Flatiron Institute CCA 09/2019 - 01/2020
”Impact of Cosmic Rays on Thermal Instability”
Advisors: Chris Hayward and Drummond Fielding

Research Assistant,  KIPAC/SLAC Linear Accelerator Laboratory                                        10/2014 - 10/2015
"Galactic Dynamo Seeded by Magnetic Supernova Feedback"
Advisor: Tom Abel

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy              06/2013 - 09/2013
"The Effect of Baryons on the Distribution of Dark Matter in Galactic Halos"
Advisor: Andrea Maccio

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, Caltech                                                           06/2012 - 09/2012
"Low-Frequency Quasi-Periodic Oscillations and Iron Line Variability of Discoseismic Corrugation Modes"
Advisor: David Tsang

LIGO Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, Caltech                                                   06/2011 - 09/2011
"Properties of Neutron Stars, Their Pulsational Modes, and Gravitational Wave Emission"
Advisor: Christian Ott

Grants and awards

Hubble Space Telescope Cycle 27 AR Legacy (Funded) 2019
”A subgrid model for simulating the unresolved microphysics in the CGM”
PIs: Cameron Hummels and Iryna Butsky,
CO-Is: Philip Hopkins, Tom Quinn, Britton Smith, Jessica Werk
Grant: $364, 204

Flatiron Pre-Doctoral Fellow (Funded) 2019-2020

Blue Waters Allocation Renewal                                                                                                 2018-2019
50,000 node-hours

Hubble Space Telescope Cycle 25 AR (Funded)                                                   2017 - 2018
"Cosmic Ray driven outflows and the structure of the CGM"
PI: Tom Quinn, CO-Is:  Iryna Butsky and Jessica Werk
Grant: $123,352  and 25,000 SUs on Pleiades

Blue Waters Graduate Fellow (Funded)                                                                                   2016 - 2017
Grant: $50,000 and 50,000 node-hours on Blue Waters

Flintridge Foundation SURF Fellow (Funded)                                                                                    2013
Nellie Bergen and Adrian Foster Tillotson SURF Fellow (Funded)                                         2012

developer

Enzo                                                                                                                                            2014 - present

• Added cosmic rays to the MHD Riemann solvers along with anisotropic diffusion and streaming

• Implemented magnetic supernova feedback

ChaNGa                                                                                                                                       2015 - present

• Implemented cosmic rays as a second fluid, including advection and isotropic diffusion.

• Implemented an improved artificial viscosity method.

Students Mentored

Shreya Nakum (high school) Fall 2018 - present
Remote weekly mentoring through the MAGIC program. So far, we’ve explored a variety
of astronomy-related topics, like building a colony on Mars, extracting information from black
holes, and estimating the number of galaxies in the observable universe.

Joseph Breneman (undergraduate senior) Summer 2019 - Spring 2021
Studying the CGM using synthetic spectroscopy.

Daniel Piacitelli (undergraduate junior) Fall 2018 - Winter 2021
PreMAP research project (continued) analyzing ram pressure stripping in the simulated
RomulusC galaxy cluster

Daven Cocroft (undergraduate senior)                                                           Spring 2018 - Spring 2019
Studying the growth of magnetic fields in the CGM of simulated isolated disk galaxies. 

Joshua Smith (undergraduate senior) Fall 2018
Created an extensive guide describing the computer, simulation, and analysis tools necessary
to conduct future undergraduate research projects.

Jasmine Smith (undergraduate freshman) Fall 2018
PreMAP research project analyzing ram pressure stripping in the simulated RomulusC cluster.

Julia Jansen (undergraduate sophomore)                                                               Fall 2017 - Spring 2018
PreMAP research project (continued) analyzing ram pressure stripping in simulated
galaxy clusters

Eliana Sisman (high school sophomore)                                                                  Fall 2017 - Spring 2018
Remote mentoring on a variety of projects through the MAGIC! program, including: building a
chatbot, creating an informative website about biology, and developing an experiment to test
the correlation between scents and short-term memory. 

Tessa Pargiter-Hatem (undergraduate sophomore)                                                                      Fall 2017
PreMAP research project analyzing simulated galaxy clusters

publications

Refereed

14. Hopkins, P., Squire, J., Butsky, I., & Ji, S. “Standard Self-Confinement and Extrinsic Turbulence
Models for Cosmic Ray Transport are Fundamentally Incompatible with Observations” (submitted)
2021

13. Hopkins, P., Butsky, I., Panopoulou, G., Ji, S., Quataert, E., Faucher-Giguere, C., & Keres, D.,
“First Predicted Cosmic Ray Spectra, Primary-to-Secondary Ratios, and Ionization Rates From MHD
Galaxy Formation Simulations”, (submitted) 2021

12. Mandelker, N., van den Bosch, F., Springel, V., van de Voort, F., Burchett, J., Butsky, I., Nagai, D.,
& Oh, S., “Thermal In- stabilities and Shattering in the High-Redshift WHIM: Convergence Criteria
and Implications for Low-Metallicity Strong HI Absorbers”, (submitted) 2021

11. Oppenheimer, B., Babul, A., Bahé, Y., Butsky, I., & McCarthy, I., “Simulating Groups and the
IntraGroup Medium: The Surprisingly Complex and Rich Middle Ground Between Clusters and Galaxies”,
Universe, 7, 209, 2021

10. Butsky, I., Werk, J., Tchernyshyov, K., Fielding, D., Breneman, J., Piacitelli, D., Quinn, T., Sanchez,
N., Cruz, A., Hummels, C., et al., “The Impact of Cosmic Rays on the Kinematics of the Circumgalactic
Medium,” (submitted to ApJ) 2021

9. Hopkins, P., Squire, J., & Butsky, I., “A Consistent Reduced-Speed-of-Light Formulation of Cosmic Ray
Transport Valid in Weak and Strong-Scattering Regimes”, (submitted to MNRAS), 2021

8. Butsky, I., Fielding, D., Hayward, C., Hummels, C., Quinn, T., and Werk, J., “The Impact of Cosmic Rays
on Thermal Instability in the Circumgalactic Medium”, The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 903, pp 77, 2020

7. Brummel-Smith, C., Bryan, G., Butsky, I., Corlies, L., Emerick, A., Forges, J., Fujimoto, Y., et al.
”ENZO: An Adaptive Mesh Refinement Code for Astrophysics (Version 2.6)”, Journal of Open Source
Software, vol. 4, no. 42, article id 1636, 2019

6. Butsky, I., Burchett, J.N, Nagai, D., Tremmel, M., Quinn, T., R., and Werk, J. K, “Ultraviolet Signatures of
Multiphase Intracluster and Circumgalactic Media in the RomulusC Simulation”, Monthly Notices of the
Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 490, pp.4292-4306, 2019

5. Hummels, C. B., Smith, B. D., Hopkins, P. F., O’Shea, B. W., Silvia, D. W., et al. (including Butsky, I.)
”The Impact of Enhanced Halo Resolution on the Simulated Circumgalactic Medium”,
The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 882, issue 2, article id. 156, 2019

4. Butsky, I. and Quinn, T. ”The Role of Cosmic-ray Transport in Shaping the Simulated Circumgalactic
Medium” , The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 868, Issue 2, article id. 108, 20 pp., 2018

3. Butsky, I., Zrake, J., Kim, J.-h., Yang, H. and Abel, T.
”Ab initio Simulations of a Supernova-driven Galactic Dynamo in an Isolated Disk Galaxy”,
The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 843, issue 2, article id. 113, 13 pp., 2017

2. Butsky, I., Maccio, A.V., Wang, L., Stinson, G., Dutton, A. A., Penzo, C., Kang, X., Keller, B.W., and Wadsley, J.,
“NiHAO Project II: Halo Shape, Phase-Space Density and Velocity Distribution of Dark Matter in Galaxy
Formation Simulations”, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol.462, pp. 663-680, 2016

1. Tsang, D., and Butsky, I., ”Iron line variability of discoseismic corrugation modes”,
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol.435, pp.749-765, 2013

Other

2. Butsky, I, “Simulating Multiphase Galactic Halos: The Impact of Cosmic Rays Through an Observational Lens”,
PhD Thesis

1. Burchett, J. N., Nagai, D., Butsky, I., Tremmel, M., Bordoloi, R., Bryan, G., Cai, Z., Canning, R., et al., “Astro2020
Science White Paper:  Ultraviolet Perspectives on Diffuse Gas in the Largest Cosmic Structures”, 2019

Skills

Fluent Computer Languages and Tools
Python, C++, yt, Pynbody, Matplotlib, LateX, 

Familiar Computer Languages and Tools
Cloudy, CSS, HTML, Julia, Java, Matlab, Mathematica, Pandas, RobotC, SQL 

Languages
Ukrainian (native), Russian (native), French (conversational), Spanish (conversational), German (intermediate)

Research Talks

ASU Galaxy Group, Tempe, AZ (virtual) 11/2021
”Cosmic Rays and the Circumgalactic Medium)

MSU Galaxy Group, East Lansing, MI (virtual) 07/2021
”Cosmic Rays and the Circumgalactic Medium”

27th Young Scientists’ Conference on Astronomy and Space Physics, Kiev, Ukraine 04/2021
“Cosmic Rays and the Circumgalactic Medium” (virtual)

N-body Shop Excellence Conference, Seattle, WA (virtual) 1/2021
”Cosmic Rays and Synthetic Spectroscopy in ChaNGa”

Arizona University Galaxy Crawl, Tucson, AZ (virtual) 1/2021
”The Impact of Cosmic Rays on Thermal Instability on the CGM”

Princeton Galaxy Journal Club, Princeton, NJ (virtual) 11/2020
”The Impact of Cosmic Rays on Thermal Instability on the CGM”

STScI Galaxy Journal Club, Baltimore, MD (virtual) 10/2020
”The Impact of Cosmic Rays on Thermal Instability on the CGM”

Caltech TAPIR Seminar, Pasadena, CA (virtual) 10/2020
”The Impact of Cosmic Rays on Thermal Instability on the CGM”

KIPAC Tea Talk, Menlo Park, CA (virtual) 10/2020
”The Impact of Cosmic Rays on Thermal Instability on the CGM”

On the Origin, Nature, and Mixing of Multiphase Gas in Astrophysics, Santa Barbara, CA 10/2020
”The Impact of Cosmic Rays on Thermal Instability on the CGM” (virtual)

Carnegie Observatories Lunch Talk, Pasadena, CA (virtual) 09/2020
”The Impact of Cosmic Rays on Thermal Instability on the CGM”

The Role of Cosmic Rays in Driving Galactic Outflows (canceled due to COVID-19) 03/2020
”The Impact of Cosmic Rays on Thermal Instability on the CGM”

Astronomy on Tap, Seattle, WA 02/2020
”Cosmic Rain and Cosmic Rays”

Columbia Astronomy Seminar, New York, NY 01/2020
”Cosmic Rays and Thermal Instability in the Circumgalactic Medium”

Rutgers University Lunch Talk, New Brunswick, NJ 01/2020
”Cosmic Rays and Thermal Instability in the Circumgalactic Medium”

CCA Predoctoral Fellowship Symposium, New York, NY 01/2020
”Cosmic Rays and Thermal Instability in the Circumgalactic Medium”

Gothamfest NYU, New York, NY 09/2019
”UV Signatures of the Multiphase ICM and CGM in the RomulusC Simulation”

UC Santa Barbara Astro Lunch Talk, Santa Barbara, CA 05/2019
”UV Signatures of the Multiphase ICM and CGM in the RomulusC Simulation”

UC Berkeley TAC Seminar, Berkeley, CA 02/2019
”The Role of Cosmic-rays in Shaping the Circumgalactic Medium”

AAS Astronomical Society Meeting, Seattle, WA 01/2019
”Genetically Modified Halos with Cosmic-ray Feedback”

Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop, Santa Cruz, CA                                                                                 07/2018
"The Role of Cosmic Ray Transport in Shaping the Simulated CGM"

Circumgalactic Medium Workshop, Evanston, IL                                                                            07/2018
"The Role of Cosmic Ray Transport in Shaping the Simulated CGM"

Blue Waters Symposium, Sunriver, OR                                                                                             06/2018
"The Role of Cosmic Ray Transport in Shaping the Simulated CGM"

Enzo Workshop, Atlanta, GA                                                                                                               05/2018
"The Role of Cosmic Ray Transport in Shaping the Simulated CGM"

CTAC University of Zurich Lunch Talk,  Zurich, Switzerland                                                           09/2017
"Simulating the CGM: The Case for Anisotropic Cosmic Ray Diffusion"

Blue Waters Symposium, Sunriver, OR                                                                                              06/2017
"The Role of Cosmic Rays in Isolated Disk Galaxies"

 KIPAC Tea Talk, Menlo Park, CA                                                                                                        06/2015
"Galactic Magnetic Fields Originating From Supernovae"

Theoretical Astrophysics in Southern California Meeting, Los Angeles, CA                                 12/2013
"The Effect of Baryons on the Dark Matter Halo Shape"

Caltech SURF Seminar, Pasadena, CA                                                                                               10/2013
"The Effect of Baryons on the Dark Matter Halo Shape"

MPIA Galaxy Coffee, Heidelberg, Germany                                                                                      09/2013
"The Effect of Baryons on the Distribution of Dark Matter in Galactic Halos"

Southern California Conferences for Undergraduate Research, Camarillo, CA                             11/2012
"X-ray Signatures of Low Frequency Disk Oscillations Around Black Holes"

 Caltech SURF Seminar, Pasadena, CA                                                                                               08/2012
"Low-Frequency Quasi-Periodic Oscillations and Iron Line Variability of Discoseismic Corrugation Modes"

Caltech SURF Seminar, Pasadena, CA                                                                                                   10/2011
"Properties of Neutron Stars, Their Pulsational Modes, and Gravitational Wave Emission"

Poster Presentations

Santa Cruz Galaxy Workshop, Santa Cruz, CA 08/2019
UV Signatures of the Multiphase ICM and CGM in the RomulusC Simulation”

Blue Waters Symposium, Sunriver, OR                                                                                                06/2017
"The Role of Cosmic Rays in Isolated Disk Galaxies"

American Astronomical Society Meeting, Washington D.C.                                                              01/2014
"The Effect of Baryons on the Distribution of Dark Matter in Galactic Halos"

American Astronomical Society Meeting, Washington D.C.                                                              01/2013
"Low-Frequency Quasi-Periodic Oscillations and Iron Line Variability of Discoseismic Corrugation Modes"