Hello!

My name is Mithi Alexa (Mia) de los Reyes (she/her/hers).

I am an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Amherst College. As an observational astronomer, I use low-mass galaxies in the nearby universe to answer the question: "Where did we come from?"

When I'm not doing research, I enjoy rock climbing, doing aerial silks, and eating baked goods.

Download my CV

Research

I use multi-wavelength observations of nearby galaxies to understand how they form and evolve.
Below is a subset of my publication list. You can find a full list here:  ADS

First-author publications

  • de los Reyes, M.A., Kirby, E.N., Zhuang, Z., Steidel, C.C., Chen, Y., Wheeler, C. (2023) Dwarfs In Void Environments (DIVE): The Stellar Kinematics of Void Dwarf Galaxies Using KCWI., ApJ, 951, 52, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acd189
  • de los Reyes, M.A., Kirby, E.N., Ji, A.P., Nuñez, E.H. (2021) Simultaneous Constraints on the Star Formation History and Nucleosynthesis of Sculptor dSph, ApJ, 925, 66, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac332b
  • de los Reyes, M.A., Kirby, E.N., Seitenzahl, I.R., Shen, K.J. (2020) Manganese Indicates a Transition from Sub- to Near-Chandrasekhar Type Ia Supernovae in Dwarf Galaxies, ApJ, 891, 85, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab736f
  • de los Reyes, M.A., Kennicutt, R.C. (2019) Revisiting the Integrated Star Formation Law. Paper I: Non-Starbursting Galaxies, ApJ, 872, 16, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aafa82
  • de los Reyes, M.A., Ly, C., Lee, J.C., et al. (2015) The Relationship Between Stellar Mass, Gas Metallicity, and Star Formation Rate for Hα-selected Galaxies at z ≈ 0.8 from the NewHα survey, AJ, 149, 79, doi:10.1088/0004-6256/149/2/79

Selected co-authored publications

  • Zhuang, Z., Kirby, E.N., Leethochawalit, N., de los Reyes, M.A. (2021) NGC 147 Corroborates the Break in the Stellar Mass-Stellar Metallicity Relation for Galaxies, ApJ, 920, 63, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac1340
  • Kennicutt, R.C., de los Reyes, M.A. (2021) Revisiting the Integrated Star Formation Law. Paper II: Starbursts and the Combined Global Schmidt Law, ApJ, 908, 61, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/abd3a2
  • Shin, K., et al., including de los Reyes, M.A. (2021) Metal Abundances across Cosmic Time (MACT) Survey. III. The Relationship between Stellar Mass and Star Formation Rate in Extremely Low-Mass Galaxies, MNRAS, 502, doi:10.1093/mnras/staa3307
  • Kirby, E.N., et al., including de los Reyes, M.A. (2019) Evidence for Sub-Chandrasekhar Type Ia Supernovae from Stellar Abundances in Dwarf Galaxies, ApJ, 881, 45, doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab2c02

Current research

White-light image of galaxy produced from integrated field spectroscopy.

Galaxies in cosmic voids

I study low-mass galaxies located in the emptiest parts of the universe: cosmic voids.

Zoomed-in portion of stellar spectrum, with models fit to the data.

Galactic archaeology

I use the chemical abundances of stars in nearby galaxies to learn about the progenitors of Type Ia supernovae.

Star forming region S106. Image credit: NASA/ESA

Star formation laws

I try to understand what factors drive star formation in nearby galaxies.

Outreach and Service

Here are some of the outreach and professional service activities I've participated in. Check out my CV for a more extensive list!

Invited public talks and other appearances

Selected previous activities


Astrobites logo of a stylized planet with a bite taken out of it
Astrobites: For 5 years, I was actively involved in Astrobites, an international graduate student collaboration that publishes daily summaries of recent astro/physics papers. You can check out my posts here! As a member of the admin committee, I helped make steering decisions and developed the collaboration's Code of Conduct. I previously chaired the diversity, equity, and inclusion committee, where I spearheaded several diversity-related initiatives in Astrobites, including the #BlackinAstro and Indigenous Astronomy series.

Caltech Women in PMA logo

Gender Minorities and Women in PMA: I was a member of the organizing committee of Caltech Gender Minorities and Women in Physics, Math, and Astronomy, a group that aims to support folks of marginalized genders in the Caltech PMA division. I help plan and run regular events: social events, workshops, and journal clubs.

Resources

Here are some resources I've put together for people applying to grad school or people interested in improving department climate/admissions policies.

Grad app timeline
Photo of the Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics
List of active faculty
Image of doctoral cap
NSF GRFP
National Science Foundation logo
Removing the PGRE
Graph from Levesque et al. (2015) showing distribution of Physics GRE scores from prize fellowship winners

Some other things I've written

  • Where do we go from here?: An essay about the proposed Thirty-Meter Telescope on the sacred peak of Maunakea
  • A guide to applying to astro postdocs: A two-part series (Part 1, Part 2) on applying for postdocs in astro/physics, co-authored with Dr. Luna Zagorac

Contact Me

Want me to give a talk or participate in a science outreach event? Have questions about the resources I've posted here? Please feel free to contact me at: mdelosreyes at amherst.edu