Judy Cheng works to learn to about galaxy formation by looking at our own Milky Way. She says that “detailed observations of our galaxy can be used to test predictions made by models of disk formation and evolution, and they complement the large surveys that study galaxies at high redshift. For the Milky Way in particular, the chemical abundances of old stars can provide hints about the chemical enrichment, star formation history, and dynamical history of the galaxy.” Cheng is a PhD Candidate in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California Santa Cruz. She has an M.S. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of California Santa Cruz and a B.S. in Physics and Astronomy from Johns Hopkins University.