CV

Contact Information

Name Zoie Telkamp
Email zrt7qc@virginia.edu
Location Department of Astronomy, PO Box 400325, 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904

Education

  • University of Virginia

  • Anticipated PhD Defense Date: April 2027

  • M.S. in Astronomy, May 2023

  • University of California, Berkeley

  • B.A. in Astrophysics, May 2020

Research Experience

  • Graduate Student Researcher
    University of Virginia, Department of Astronomy
    Investigating star formation from low to high masses using observations from ALMA, JWST, Herschel, Spitzer, and SOFIA. Co-developed open-source analysis tools including the sedcreator Python package to enable community science (15+ publications).
  • Junior Astronomy Specialist
    University of California, Berkeley
    Led development of an autoencoder neural network to generate synthetic protoplanetary disk images 1000x faster than traditional radiative transfer calculations, enabling efficient disk modeling. Published first-authored paper in The Astrophysical Journal.
  • Undergraduate Astronomy Researcher
    University of California, Berkeley
    Used methods including principal component analysis to investigate relationships between protoplanetary disk physical properties and morphology. Co-authored two publications and participated in observing runs at Keck and Lick observatories.

Awards

  • Dissertation Year Fellowship, 2026–2027
    Jefferson Scholars Foundation
  • Emma Williams Prize in Astronomy, 2025
    University of Virginia Astronomy Department
  • American Astronomical Society (AAS) Nova, "Selections from 2025", 2025
    American Astronomical Society
  • Graduate STEM Research Fellowship, 2023–2025
    Virginia Space Grant Consortium
  • International Astronomical Union Grant, 2023
    International Astronomical Union
  • Dorothea Klumpke Roberts Prize in Astronomy, 2020
    UC Berkeley Astronomy Department
  • Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (URAP) Summer Award, 2020
    University of California, Berkeley

Publications

  • First Author

  • Telkamp, Z., Plunkett, A., Tan, J.C., 2026, "An Archival ALMA Survey of Disks around Massive Protostars," submitted to ApJ; revisions in progress

  • Telkamp, Z., Fedriani, R., Tan, J. C., Law, C., Yang, Y., Plunkett, A., et al., 2025, "The SOFIA Massive (SOMA) Star Formation Survey. V. Clustered Protostars," ApJ, 986, 15 DOI

  • Telkamp, Z., Martínez-Palomera, J., Duchêne, G., Ashimbekova, A., Wolfe, E., Angelo, I., Pinte, C., 2022, "A machine learning framework to predict images of edge-on protoplanetary disks," ApJ, 939, 73 DOI

  • Contributing Author

  • Fedriani, R., Tan, J. C., Telkamp, Z. (+13 co-authors), 2023, "The SOFIA Massive (SOMA) Star Formation Survey. IV. Isolated Protostars," ApJ, 942, 7 DOI

  • Jørgensen, J., Coutens, A., Drozdovskaya, M., Lee, J.-E., Plunkett, A., Maret, S., Belloche, A., Harsono, D., Telkamp, Z. (+20 coauthors), 2026, "Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys (COMPASS). I. Overview of the ALMA Large Program," submitted to A&A

  • Plunkett, A. (+26 coauthors and Telkamp, Z.), 2026, "Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys (COMPASS). II. Approach to data reduction and products for line-rich broadband (sub-)millimeter spectra," submitted to A&A

  • Coutens, A. (+26 coauthors and Telkamp, Z.), 2026, "Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys (COMPASS). III. CH3OH isotopic fractionation in the low-mass protostar BHR71-IRS1," submitted to A&A

  • Gigli, D., Gorai, P., Law, C. Y., Tan, J. C., Bonfand, M., Rahman, T., Zhang, Y., Taniguchi, K., Fedriani, R., Telkamp, Z. (+2 co-authors), 2025, "The SOMA MM Survey. I. An Astrochemical Census of Massive Protostars," A&A, in press DOI

  • Oakey, P., Yang, Y. L., Tan, J. C., Bisbas, T., Fedriani, R., Tanaka, K., Telkamp, Z. (+3 coauthors), 2025, "The SOMA Atomic Outflow Survey. I. An Atomic OI and Highly Ionized OIII Outflow from Massive Protostar G11.94-00.62," ApJ, in press DOI

  • Crowe, S., Fedriani, R., Tan, J. C., Whittle, M., Zhang, Y., Caratti o Garatti, A., Farias, J. P., Gautam, A., Telkamp, Z. (+24 co-authors), 2024, "Near-infrared observations of outflows and young stellar objects in the massive star-forming region AFGL 5180," A&A, 682, A2 DOI

  • Finn, M., Mazzei, R., Drechsler, B., Telkamp, Z., Rao, M., Agrawal, P., McAlister, A., 2023, "How Informal Science Education Influences Elementary Students’ Perceptions of Science and Themselves," Journal of STEM Outreach, 6, 1 DOI

  • Angelo, I., Duchêne, G., Stapelfeldt, K., Telkamp, Z. (+8 coauthors), 2023, "Demographics of Protoplanetary Disks: A Simulated Population of Edge-on Systems," ApJ, 945, 130 DOI

  • Villenave, M., Ménard, F., Dent, W., Duchene, G., Stapelfeldt, K., Benisty, M., Boehler, Y., van der Plas, G., Pinte, C., Telkamp, Z. (+8 co-authors), 2020, "Observations of edge-on protoplanetary disks with ALMA. I. Results from continuum data," A&A, 642, A164 DOI

Talks

  • Benchmarking LLM Use in Multiwavelength Astronomy
    NSF-Simons AI Institute for Cosmic Origins Webinar (2026)

  • An Archival ALMA Survey of Disks Around Massive Protostars
    Chalmers/Virginia Initiative on Cosmic Origins (CICO/VICO) Spring Workshop, University of Virginia (2026)

  • A Multi-Scale Comparison of Star Formation from Low to High Masses
    Astronomy Seminar, Virginia Tech (Invited) (2026)

  • Investigating Massive Star Formation with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)
    Virginia Space Grant Consortium Graduate Research Conference, Hampton University (2025)

  • The SOFIA Massive (SOMA) Star Formation Survey: Clustered Regions
    Bob Rood Symposium, University of Virginia (2025)

  • Probing Massive Star Formation with the ALMA Archive
    Bob Rood Symposium, University of Virginia (2024)

  • Zooming into Massive Star Formation: A Multi-scale Approach
    “TUNA” Lunch Talks, National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) (2023)

  • The SOMA Survey - Probing Massive Star Formation Across Galactic Environments
    Our Galactic Ecosystem: Opportunities and Diagnostics in the Infrared and Beyond, University of California, Los Angeles, Lake Arrowhead Lodge (2022)

  • The SOFIA Massive (SOMA) Star Formation Survey: New Algorithms and New Environments
    Virginia Initiative on Cosmic Origins (2021)

  • Developing a Physics-Aware Neural Network to Generate Edge-On Protoplanetary Disk Images
    237th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (2021)

Posters

  • Benchmarking LLM Use in Multiwavelength Astronomy
    2nd Annual NSF-Simons AI Institute for Cosmic Origins Science Conference, Charlottesville, Virginia (2026)

  • Probing Massive Star Formation with the ALMA Archive
    ALMA at 10 years: Past, Present, and Future (2023)

  • The SOMA Survey - Probing Massive Star Formation Across Galactic Environments
    From Stars to Galaxies II (2022)

  • Characterizing the Radial and Vertical Structure of Protoplanetary Disks
    Summer Intern Poster Symposium, University of California, Berkeley (2019)

Teaching Experience

  • Graduate Student Teaching Assistant

  • Astronomy 4470/5470: Computational Astrophysics (Graduate-level): Spring 2026, University of Virginia

  • Astronomy 1220: Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe: Spring 2026, University of Virginia

  • Astronomy 1210: Intro Sky and Solar System: Spring 2024, University of Virginia

  • Astronomy 1280: Origins of Almost Everything: Spring 2024, University of Virginia

  • Astronomy 5110: Astronomical Techniques (Graduate-level): Fall 2023, University of Virginia

  • Astronomy 1220: Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe: Fall 2023, University of Virginia

  • Astronomy 2110: Introduction to Astrophysics: Fall 2022, University of Virginia

  • Astronomy 1290: Black Holes: Fall 2022, University of Virginia

  • Summer Student Supervisor

  • Chalmers/Virginia Initiative on Cosmic Origins (CICO/VICO): Summer 2022. Co-supervisor to Sam Crowe, "Massive Protostars in the Galactic Center," and Alejandro Romar Tejeiro, "Infrared Light in the Dark (I-LID)—A Census of Star Formation in IRDCs."

  • Undergraduate Course Grader

  • Astronomy 160: Stellar Astrophysics: Fall 2019, University of California, Berkeley

Leadership and Outreach

  • Sedcreator Python package — Co-lead developer: 2021–Present

  • Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Council — Representative for the UVA Astronomy Department: 2023–2024

  • Dark Skies, Bright Kids (DSBK) Assessments — Researcher: 2021–2023. Co-author of a publication in the Journal of STEM Outreach investigating the enrichment of science education in under-served school systems.

Skills

Technical: Python, Docker, UNIX, HTML, JavaScript, LaTeX, GitHub, Google Colab, SAOImageDS9, MCFOST
Machine Learning: Large Language Models (LLMs), Deep Neural Networks, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Random Forest Regression, Multivariate Linear Regression, Polynomial Regression