Observational Programs

My current research focuses on answering how galaxies and supermassive black holes form and evolve over cosmic time. In particular, we use integral field spectrographs with adaptive optics to identify and analyze the dynamics and chemical abundances of galaxies in the early universe, and properties of supermassive black holes. This technique provides a unique ability to probe the 3D spatial extent of high-redshift (z > 1, look back time greater than 7.5 Gyr) galaxies and active galactic nuclei at sub-arcsecond (sub-kiloparsec) scales.We are leading a Keck program to resolve Quasar host galaxies to study their star formation properties, nebular excitation mechanisms, dynamical properties, and their environments.

I work on a variety of other projects, including the imaging of gravitationally-lensed distant galaxies, exploration of nearby galaxies, understanding star formation, investigating the black hole-bulge (or M-sigma) relationship, and studies surrounding astrophysical transients and technosignatures.

Optical & Near-IR SETI

Our team focuses on developing optical and near-infrared SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) instrument and experiments. We recently commisioned a new near-infrared SETI instrument (NIROSETI) at the Nickel telescope (1m) at Lick Observatory. The premise of this instrument is to search for ETI signals which would use strong pulsed near-infrared laser signals at nanosecond intervals that can be distinguished from astrophysical sources. This is the first near-infrared SETI search every conducted, and we are currently designing new methods and instrumentation for future searches. We are also developing the first dedicated optical and near-infrared SETI observatoryi (PANOSETI) that will be capable of searching for transient signals from nanosecond to second timescales over the instantaneous observable sky (1,000's of sq. degrees).