The David Will Prize recognizes a student or postdoctoral researcher in astrophysics who is conducting an exceptional research program in computational astronomy, survey astronomy, data science, or other related topics. The award honors the contribution of David Will, who for many years was a beloved member of the department staff, leading the department’s computing and IT efforts. David had a physics background, a generous spirit, was critical to the establishment of ASAS-SN and many other efforts. David was also a dear friend to many people in the department for many years. 

This year, we award the David Will Prize to CCAPP Fellow Manami Roy for her exceptional research in computational astrophysics including simulations and modeling. Manami's research focuses on the circumgalactic medium and the impact of cosmic rays on the CGM and galaxy evolution. She has led multiple important works since coming to Ohio State, doing idealized numerical simulations using the MHD code GIZMO to probe the origin of super-virial gas in the Milky Way CGM. Using two-fluid hydrodynamical simulations, she studied the role of cosmic-rays in shaping cold ram-pressure stripped gas contributed by satellite galaxies. She also used two-fluid hydro simulations with PLUTO to show hadronic interactions with CGM gas can generate extended gamma-ray emission consistent with the halo observed around M31. She is also highly successful at getting support for her computational work: she PIed two computer cluster allocation programs that awarded 13.6M CPU hours and 23.6 TB of storage. Congratulations, Manami!