I study the characteristics and evolution of both nearby and distant star-forming galaxies. "Nearby" implies closer than about 30 Mpc, a distance that takes light 100 million years to traverse; "distant" in my research involves up to ten billion light years. My research has utilized space-based telescopes and observatories in Arizona, California, Hawaii, New Mexico, West Virginia, Wyoming, Chile, and Puerto Rico.
Multi-wavelength Space-Based Studies of Galaxies
I use space-based telescopes like Hubble, Spitzer, GALEX, and Herschel to study galaxy spectral energy distributions and to develop spectral diagnostics that distinguish between galaxies powered by AGN and those dominated by star formation. My projects include SINGS, LVL, 5MUSES, EDGES, LEGUS, and KINGFISH. This research is supported by NASA.
Optical Ground-Based Studies of Galaxies
We have deeply imaged Hα line emission from star-forming galaxies at six different epochs in time, to track the evolution of the cosmic star formation rate. We used Wyoming's 2.3 m telescope and two Kitt Peak telescopes. NewHα utilizes the Cerro Tololo and Las Campanas observatories, both in Chile, to characterize the properties of high-redshift star-forming galaxies. This research has been supported by an NSF CAREER award. See the press release.
Student Work
Motivated students should contact me about research opportunities. Student projects have included measuring the multi-wavelength broadband photometry of galaxies, characterizing stellar clusters, constraining the luminosity function of star-forming regions, examining the stellar profiles of nearby disk galaxies, surveying the population of Hα emitters in the local Universe, and measuring the evolution of the dust content in galaxies over cosmic time.
Research: SED models HST star clusters Spitzer SINGS Spitzer 5MUSES Spitzer LVL Spitzer EDGES NSF WySH Herschel KINGFISH rotation curves
Background image: Hubble Ultra Deep Field