Chemical evolution of galaxies
I am an observational astronomer interested in studying the chemical composition of galaxies and using this to understand the processes that have shaped galaxy evolution. I am involved in two observational surveys that approach this problem in different ways.
I am a member of the NIRSpec GTO team for the forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope. I am a part of the JADES survey, which is a joint NIRCam and NIRSpec GTO program which, among other aims, will vastly improve our understanding of the properties (including chemical abundances) of galaxies at the highest redshifts. This will vastly improve our understanding of how evolutionary processes shaped galaxies in earliest epochs of galaxy assembly.
I also work closely with collaborators at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia on the DUVET survey studying outflows and extended gas in low-redshift starburst galaxies with Keck/KCWI. Recently I lead a study in which we directly measured the chemical composition in galactic inflows and outflows of the edge-on starburst galaxy Mrk 1486. These gas flows are known to be critical in shaping galaxy assembly, but have historically been very poorly constrained by observations. These measurements from DUVET have vastly improved constraints on the properties of these gas flows