Daniel Mikkola

About

My name is Daniel Mikkola I'm a half-Swedish, half-Finnish guy, of age. From Lund University I have a BSc in physics as well as a MSc and PhD in astronomy and astrophysics. I greatly enjoy all things programming and data science. I've worked with computational tools and big data all through my academic career which started with planet formation during my bachelor's degree and led onwards to galaxy simulations by my master's. Originally schooled in MATLAB I've since transitioned to mostly utilizing Python 3 with a mixture of C, C++ & HTML sprinkled in along the way. If you are interested in my work, check out my research.

When not working, I spend my time with one of my hobbies. During the year I hike multiple times and camp outdoors overnight. There is no superior way of experiencing nature than living & breating it. While at home, I enjoy gaming, socializing with friends & going to the gym.

Curriculum Vitae

Research

Research interests

My research interests revolve around Galactic dynamics, structure, and evolution understood through the use of large galaxy simulations and large astrometric surveys. I am interested in understanding how the motions and positions of stars both today and in the past reveal the complicated histories of galaxies. Below I explain my research projects.

Project 1 - Published [ADS]
Radial migration and vertical action in N-body simulations

In my first project, we sought out to answer the question "Which stars are radially migrated". We specifically investigate how the extent of the vertical excursions of stars affects the degree to which they undergo radial migration or churning, a process which displaces stars in galactocentric radius. To do this, we create N-body simulations of several different galaxies using packages available within NEMO and conclude that the relationship depends on how strong the galactic disc is relative to its dark matter halo, which provides further insight into discrepancies which existed within the literature.

Project 2 - Published [ADS]
The velocity distribution of white dwarfs in Gaia EDR3

The Gaia space telescope has in recent years been able to provide us with astronishing astrometric data of a staggering number of sources within the Milky Way Galaxy. As of its latest release, EDR3, it reaches ~1.5 billion stars have proper motions and positions with great precision. We make use of this data to access a large amount of White Dwarfs (WDs), stars which are faint and traditionally difficult to survey. Using their positions and on-sky velocities solely we calculate a maximum likelihood estimate for the velocity distributions in U-V, U-W, and V-W. This provides us with the first velocity distributions of WDs to date. Upon further study of their kinematics, we are also able to detect significant differences in the velocity dispersions of the bifurcated sequences previous identified in the WD colour-magnitude diagram.

Project 3 - [ADS soon!]
New stellar velocity substructures from Gaia DR3

A result from Gaia's 2nd data release was the discovery of two separate main sequences for stars with large on-sky, or tangential, velocities (v_T > 200 km s^-1). This has since been connected to a major collision with an external galaxy called the Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus. Since then, a grand hunt for accreted substructures in the Milky Way has begun. Our method from Project 2 permits us to use larger samples than otherwise available and so we apply our method to an extended Solar neighbourhood sample, which we then split into a more local stellar disc sample (d < 200 pc) and a stellar halo sample (d < 3 kpc). We find evidence of new velocity substructures from these samples, one in the disc and two in the halo, which we call MMH-0, MMH-1, and MMH-2 respectively. We demonstrate the strength and possibilities of our algorithm for prediction and classification.

Public outreach

Since 2013 I have been a part of Lund University's Physics and Lasershow, this is an educational show which consists of typically a 45 minute demonstration of physical experiments with explanation followed by a 15 minute long lasershow. The aim of the show is to inspire all different ages towards physics and natural science as a whole while simultaneously performing marketing for Lund University. During my years in the show I have had the wonderful opportunity to interact with students of all ages and help them see what makes science a worthwhile pursuit. The show has also travelled abroad where we have interacted with the greater European science outreach community.

As part of the show I have attended the following events:

Teaching

Teaching experience and outlook

As part of my PhD education at Lund University I was given a few different teaching roles. My first teaching experience was through the course "Statistical Tools in Astrophysics" at the advanced undergraduate level. In this course I have had the task of correcting student reports on four different projects and have to ensure a fair mark. in a second course, "Computational astrophysics" I have assisted during computer labs, aiding students in their programming and project comprehension. In such a sitatuion it is important to know how to identify where help is needed and in what form.

My most significant teaching experience comes from co-developing and teaching the course "An introduction to Python programming", which is a mini-course accompanying the two aforementioned courses to ensure students have sufficient programming knowledge for the course projects. This course contains classical lectures as well as exercise sessions on the lecture material. Having taught this course two years I have been able to collect feedback from students and been able to revise the material to improve the learning experience. I am a firm believer of active learning and strive to constantly engage my students through my lecture material. I believe lectures are improved with good graphical aids and with the inclusion of humour as it not only removes any perceived hierarchy but is useful in mainting student focus and interest.

As part of my teaching experience I have also taken the course "Teaching and learning in higher education" at the university which has greatly improved my own teaching style and pedagogical knowledge.

Contact

Elements

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