Title: Data-Driven Studies of the Milky Way’s Chemo-Dynamical Evolution with Large-Scale Surveys

Speaker: Dr. Zhuohan Li（Institute of Space Sciences, Shandong University）

Time: 10:00am, September 8, 2026

Location: 5-516, PMO Xianlin Campus

Abstract: Understanding how the Milky Way formed and evolved is a cornerstone question in modern astrophysics. As the nearest laboratory for studying galaxy formation, our Galaxy preserves detailed chemo-dynamical records of its assembly history, from ancient merger events to internal secular evolution. In this talk, I will briefly review the development of Galactic archaeology and discuss how large-scale astronomical surveys and machine-learning techniques are reshaping the way we study the formation and evolution of the Milky Way. I will present several studies that combine chemical abundances, stellar dynamics, machine learning, physical modeling, and numerical simulations to investigate the chemo-dynamical structure of the Galaxy. These examples include the characterization of large stellar populations, the identification of accreted stellar components, and the study of the dynamical and chemical evolution of the Galactic disk, bulge, and halo. Together, they illustrate how data-driven methods can be integrated with astrophysical knowledge to extract physically meaningful information from increasingly large and complex survey datasets. I will conclude by discussing future directions for Galactic archaeology, with particular emphasis on developing data-driven approaches that are more physically informed, interpretable, and robust, as well as on combining information from multiple large-scale astronomical surveys.