Cleaning up the dusty universe with JWST and ALMA

About half the light ever emitted by stars over the history of the universe was absorbed by interstellar dust and re-radiated at long wavelengths. Dust-rich galaxies are the sites of intense starbursts that can rapidly assemble and then cut short the growth of the earliest generations of massive galaxies. I will discuss the ways that two synergistic telescopes - ALMA in the submillimeter and JWST in the infrared - are changing our view of where and how dust is produced in early massive galaxies, and what happens to it after they become quiescent. 

I will present some recent results that cover different stages of the life cycle of dust in the early universe, including its production and growth in dust-rich starbursts, its connection to the ISM in more typical massive galaxies, and its apparently rapid destruction as galaxies transition to quiescence.

About the speaker

I am an assistant professor of astronomy at Texas A&M University, where I have been since 2022. Before that I did postdoctoral stints as a NASA Hubble Fellow and Harlan J. Smith Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin from 2017-2022. I received my PhD in Astronomy & Astrophysics in 2017 from the University of Arizona, where my advisor was Dr. Dan Marrone.

I am a multiwavelength observational astrophysicist, and my research interests are broadly related to the ways that galaxies form (or don't form) new stars throughout the history of the Universe. I’m working on a number of topics related to the quenching of galaxies, trying to understand the physical mechanisms that turn a star-forming galaxy into a quiescent one.

I grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska and went to college at Iowa State University - what can I say, I'm a big state school guy at heart! I originally wanted to be an engineer, but decided pretty quickly that engineering was far too practical for me, so I decided to become an astrophysicist instead. When away from the computer screen I'm a big cyclist, typically hitting about 3000 miles a year on two wheels by commuting and fun rides.