Research
My scientific interests include galaxy formation and evolution, AGN, observational astronomy, astronomical surveys, and data analysis. I also have a soft spot for theoretical physics, especially gravitational field theory. There’s something deeply romantic about it that keeps pulling me back.
More specific interests and projects. I look for quasars at 4.5 < z < 7, reaching back to the very beginning of the universe, using an SED fitting code I developed. So far this has produced a catalog of around 6,000 candidates that are now being observed spectroscopically. Among them I hunt for the most extreme sources, the jetted quasars that stay enormously powerful even at these redshifts, and I work on the methods that will let the next generation of imaging surveys find many more. Quasars in the early universe sit in massive galaxies fed by enormous reservoirs of cool gas, the circumgalactic medium. This gas is the fuel for star formation and it regulates how galaxies grow. I map it through its Lyman alpha emission with VLT/MUSE around radio-loud quasars at 3.66 < z < 6.44, to find out how the powerful jets interact with the material that feeds their galaxies.
High-redshift quasars
Circumgalactic medium
More on my work.
