Galaxies, Early Universe, Powerful Telescopes

three keywords to summarize my passions

and my scientific interest is certainly not limited to these! The Universe is big and full of mysteries, and there are so many things I want to study. Check out the complete list of publications and my full CV in the links below to learn about what I do. You can also learn more about me from my latest interview! Also check out all my other web profiles.

News

Research Highlights

Semi-analytic forecasts for the Universe

Project Logo This is a series of work where we provide a comprehensive package of mock catalogues with galaxies predicted with the Santa Cruz SAM. We currently provide predictions for an extremely wide range of physical and observable galaxy properties, and photometry for the James Webb Space Telescope, Roman Space Telescope, Euclid Observatory, Rubin Observatory, as well as Hubble, Spitzer, VISTA, UKIRT, and many others. This comprehensive simulated data is great for all sorts of planning best survey strategies, maximizing scientific productivity of future missions, and exploring multi-instrument synergies.


Semi-analytic forecasts for JWST

Project Logo My dissertation research has been published in a series of work entitled “Semi-analytic forecasts for JWST”, which I studied the co-evolution of galaxy formation and cosmic reionization using semi-analytic methods. Based on these results, we also made recommendations for survey designs for the long-anticipated, premier observatory James Webb Space Telescope. Click the links below to check out the Data Product Portal hosted by the Flatiron Institute and the full list of Forecasts Papers.

Semi-analytic forecasts for Roman

Project Logo We have created some 2 sq. deg. lightcones, aiming to provide forecasts for the coming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and other ground- and space-based facilities. Stay tuned for a large collection of data releases and science publications! My recent talk at the Roman Virtual Lecture Series.

The CEERS Collaboration

Project Logo The Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey is a selected DD-ERS Program that will efficiently cover 100 sq. arcmin of the sky with JWST imaging and spectroscopy, taking advantage of JWST's various parallel observing capabilities. I am a Key Project Architect for the program, major contributor to the pre-launch data products, and Group Leader of the Simulations Working Group and Junior Scientist Working Group. Publications from the CEERS Collaboration are available here.

The NGDEEP Collaboration

Project Logo The Next Generation Deep Extragalactic Exploratory Public (NGDEEP) Survey is a selected Cycle 1 Treasury Program that will conduct extremely deep grism survey on the HUDF and image the HUDF-Par2 field. For survey descriptions see here and for early results see here. pass

Get In Touch

  • Address

    General Building III, P507
    Institute of Astronomy, National Tsing Hua University
    No. 101, Section 2, Kuang-Fu Road, Hsinchu City 300044, Taiwan

  • Email

    yung at phys.nthu.edu.tw   
    l {d0t} y {d0t} aaronyung at gmail.com   

There is more!

Short Bio

L. Y. Aaron Yung is an Assistant Professor and Yushan Fellow in the Institute of Astronomy (IoA) at National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) in Taiwan. The Yushan Fellowship is awarded by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan and is competitively selected from among faculty hires across all disciplines and universities nationwide.

His research focuses on developing physical models of galaxy formation, with a particular interest in the early stages of the universe’s evolutionary history. He is known for the publication series Semi-Analytic Forecasts for the Universe, which provides crucial predictions and simulated data products. These assets support the design of extragalactic surveys using ground- and space-based facilities worldwide, including NASA’s flagship Webb and Roman Space Telescopes.

Prior to joining the NTHU IoA, Prof. Yung was a Giacconi Fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), a world-renowned astrophysics research institution in Baltimore, Maryland (2023–2026). He also served as a NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) Fellow at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland (2020–2023), the world’s leading center for space telescope development. From 2016 to 2020, he was a visiting researcher at the Center for Computational Astrophysics (CCA) at the Flatiron Institute in New York City while completing his Ph.D. in astrophysics from Rutgers University. Earlier, he received his B.S. in physics and mathematics from the University of San Francisco in 2014.

Aaron was born in Hong Kong and raised in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. Culturally, he identifies as equal parts Kamaʻāina, San Franciscan, New Yorker, and Marylander. He speaks Cantonese with family and friends and has studied Japanese and French on and off over the years. He is excited about this new chapter of life, in which he gets to call Taiwan home and put his eighth-grade Chinese to work.

學術簡介

容朗殷教授現於國立清華大學天文研究所任職助理教授。容教授的研究專長為星系形成的物理模型建構，特別聚焦於早期宇宙的演化歷史。他致力於透過理論與數值方法，建立能有效解釋觀測數據並預測未來觀測成果的模型框架，藉此探討早期宇宙的星系如何形成、演化，以及這些過程如何與大尺度宇宙結構相互關聯。容教授尤其以其主導的系列論文 Semi-Analytic Forecasts for the Universe 廣為人知；該系列研究提供了關鍵的理論預測與模擬數據產品，已成為多項重要河外星系巡天計畫在設計、規劃與優化階段的重要依據。

在應用層面上，容教授的研究支援全球多項地面與太空望遠鏡計畫，其中最核心的包括 NASA 旗艦級觀測任務「詹姆斯·韋伯太空望遠鏡（James Webb Space Telescope, JWST）」與「南希·葛蕾絲·羅曼太空望遠鏡（Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope）」。其研究成果不僅提供可靠的理論預測，亦產出高價值的模擬數據，協助觀測團隊評估巡天設計、樣本選取、觀測效率與科學產出，進一步提升河外星系研究與早期宇宙探索的整體效益。除理論建模外，容教授亦積極與多個觀測團隊合作，透過預測模型與模擬數據的整合，為宇宙觀測策略提供定量的科學基礎。

加入國立清華大學之前，容教授曾於 2023 至 2026 年間擔任美國太空望遠鏡科學研究所（Space Telescope Science Institute, STScI）的賈科尼研究員（Giacconi Fellow）。STScI 為全球頂尖的天文與天體物理研究機構，亦是多項重要太空望遠鏡任務的科學運作核心。在此之前，他於 2020 至 2023 年間擔任美國國家航空暨太空總署戈達德太空飛行中心（NASA Goddard Space Flight Center）的 NASA 博士後研究員（NASA Postdoctoral Program, NPP Fellow）。NASA Goddard 為世界領先的太空天文儀器與太空望遠鏡研發中心之一，在太空任務規畫與科學推進上具有關鍵地位。

在博士訓練期間，容教授自 2016 至 2020 年間於羅格斯大學攻讀天體物理學博士，並同時於紐約 Flatiron Institute 旗下的計算天體物理中心（Center for Computational Astrophysics, CCA）擔任訪問研究人員。這段經歷奠定了他結合計算天體物理、理論模型建構與模擬方法的研究基礎，也使他得以在高效能運算、理論預測與觀測連結等方向建立豐富的跨領域合作經驗。容教授於 2014 年畢業於舊金山大學，取得物理學與數學雙學士學位，並於 2020 年獲得羅格斯大學天體物理學博士學位。

Use of Name

Yung (容) is my family name. Both Aaron and 朗殷 (phonetically translated as "Long Yan" and abbreviated as "L. Y.") were given to me at birth. In formal academic settings and publications, I style my full name as "L. Y. Aaron Yung" (please note the space between "L." and "Y."). On all other occasions, I go by "Aaron Yung" or "Aaron". I briefly published under "Long Yan Yung" early in my career, which may be helpful if you are searching for my earliest work.