Our understanding of the origin of the elements is grounded in observational abundance measurements and theoretical models of stellar explosions. The current era of big data from surveys such as APOGEE, GALAH, and Gaia allows us to study an unprecedented number of stars in abundance, velocity, and position space. With data from these surveys, we can analyze the nucleosynthetic contributions to over 20 elements. In this talk I will provide an overview of the power of abundance surveys in decoding our Galactic chemical evolution. I will discuss a multi-process model for stellar abundances, the importance of comparing empirical and theoretical nucleosynthetic yields, and highlight how we can use the Milky Way to learn fundamental properties of core-collapse and type-Ia supernovae.

Astro Colloquium and 'coffee & cookies' department gathering (3:45-4:00pm)

Please join in 538 Davey or click the link to join: https://psu.zoom.us/j/93131536409