Contact
Tuan Do430 Portola Plaza, Box 951547
Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1547
Email : tdo [at] astro.ucla.edu
Office Phone: 310-206-0208
Twitter: @quantumpenguin
Bluesky: @tuando.bsky.social
Research Interests
My research interest is in understanding the formation of the nuclei of galaxies and fundamental physics with astrophysical probes. I'm currently studying the composition and star formation history of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster and how these stars interact with the supermassive black hole at the Galactic center. I also use the orbits of these stars to test Einstein's General Theory of Relativity around our supermassive black hole. I'm also interested in the dynamics of nearby Milky Way dwarf galaxies and how we can use them to study cosmology. I am primarily an observer, using both space-based telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope, and adaptive optics on ground-based telescopes like the Keck Telescopes and Gemini to obtain precise photometry and kinematics. I have also been working on a data simulator and science cases for the Infrared Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) for the future Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT). I also lead the UCLA Astrophysics Data Lab studying machine learning in astrophysics.
For more information about my research:
Galactic Center » Nearby Galaxies » TMT » Machine Learning »
Teaching/Education
Fall 2024 - Astro 278 - AI for Astrophysics
Winter 2025 - Physics C170M/C270M - Machine Learning for Physical Sciences Lab
Spring 2025 - Astro 180 - Observational Astrophysics Lab
Short Bio
I got my undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astrophysics at UC Berkeley in 2004 and my PhD at UCLA in 2010. I was a TMT postdoctoral fellow at UC Irvine until 2012, when I joined the Dunlap Institute as a Dunlap Fellow until 2014. I returned to UCLA in 2015 as a research scientist and joined the Physics and Astronomy Department faculty in 2020.
For more information, please see my CV.
CV / Publications
View CV » Publications List » Download Thesis »
Advising and Mentoring
Postdocs
Graduate Students
Undergraduate Students
Previous Advisees
Interested in Research?
UCLA Graduate students - please contact Prof. Do for details.
UCLA Undergraduates - our lab takes on new research students through the Physics and Astronomy Department Summer Undergraduate Research Program or the UC Leads program. Applications for these programs are due in Winter or Spring each year.
Students not from UCLA - unfortuntately, I do not have the capacity to mentor students not from UCLA.