Galaxy Evolution Research

I was active in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey from 1998 through 2020.  I was the lead developer of the Luminous Red Galaxy sample, which led to my interests in the evolution of red galaxies.  I have been involved with studies of the galaxy luminosity function, the color and detailed spectral properties of red galaxies, and the correlations of galaxy properties with environment.  LRGs have been a mainstay of large-scale structure studies in SDSS, SDSS-III BOSS, and now DESI.

I have been involved with two field galaxy redshift surveys that pushed substantially fainter than SDSS.  In the AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey (AGES), we used the MMT to survey 8 square degrees to a depth of I=20.  Then in the PRIsm MUltiobject Survey (PRIMUS), we used the Magellan Telescope to survey 9 square degrees as deep as i=23.  Both surveys were conducted in regions with excellent multi-wavelength imaging data.  We have used the data to investigate the evolution of galaxies from z=1 as well as the properties and evolution of active galaxies. 

At the highest redshifts, I am the extragalactic theme lead for the James Webb Space Telescope Near-Infrared Camera instrument team, which has combined with the Near-Infrared Spectrograph instrument team to conduct the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES).  Previously, I was a member of the NICMOS Ultra-Deep Field team.  

An image of the raw data from the PRIMUS survey.  Each tiny streak is the spectrum of a faint galaxy; this single exposure contains over 2000.  The large dark circles are the result of a lack of targets near bright stars.