Galaxy Evolution

I’m interested in the role of feedback in regulating star formation at various scales, from individual resolved giant molecular clouds to mature spirals. Currently, I’m focused on high-redshift galaxies as a laboratory to test star formation and feedback models. High-redshift galaxies are relatively straightforward to model due to their simpler star formation, feedback, environmental interaction, and chemical enrichment histories. In particular, I find the bursty star formation observed in high-redshift and low-mass galaxies informative for constraining baryonic feedback models.

Interstellar Medium

The chemical enrichment and dust obscuration stages of galaxies result from the complex interplay between the accretion of pristine gas, enrichment of the interstellar medium by supernovae, and the ejection of enriched gas through feedback-driven outflows. I’m interested in forward-modelling the observed scaling relations between the stellar mass, star formation rate, gas-phase metallicity, and dust obscuration to constrain galaxy evolution and feedback models.

Stellar Populations

I develop spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting algorithms, driven by the belief that SED-fitting techniques should be highly specialised for each use case. Different galaxies and scientific questions often require tailored SED-fitting approaches. Currently, I am primarily focused on the redshift and galaxy-type evolution of the stellar initial mass function and am optimising my SED-fitter (genesis) for this specific purpose.