AAS Names Steven Finkelstein as Fred Kavli Plenary Lecturer

With support from the Kavli Foundation, the Vice Presidents of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) name a special invited lecturer to kick off each semiannual AAS meeting with a presentation on recent research of great importance. At the 246th AAS meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, on 9 June 2025, the Fred Kavli Plenary Lecture will be given by Dr. Steven Finkelstein, an astronomer at The University of Texas at Austin.

Finkelstein serves as the Principal Investigator for the JWST Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) program, a survey covering 100 square arcminutes of the sky with the powerful telescope’s imaging and spectroscopy. The CEERS survey — and Finkelstein’s research — focuses on answering questions about when and how galaxies first formed out of the cosmic dark ages.

The JWST CEERS survey was undertaken in two epochs in 2022, ultimately providing humanity’s first glimpse into galaxy formation in the first 500 million years of cosmic time. Some of the project’s goals were to discover dozens of galaxies at the high redshifts of z ~ 9–13 to constrain their abundance and their nature; to obtain deep spectra of more than 400 galaxies at z > 3 to learn about the physical conditions of star formation and black hole growth; to quantify the first galactic bulge and disk structures at z > 3; and to study dust-obscured star formation and supermassive black hole growth at z ~ 1–3.

These endeavors have been successful, and they are just the tip of the iceberg of discoveries CEERS has enabled. The program has already resulted in more than 70 team research articles and more than 100 additional research articles using CEERS data.

The AAS Vice Presidents have awarded Finkelstein with the AAS 246 Kavli Lectureship in his capacity representing the entire JWST CEERS collaboration, citing the collaboration “for transformative results that significantly advance our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution at cosmic dawn.”

Steven Finkelstein earned his Ph.D. from Arizona State University and conducted postdoctoral research at Texas A&M University before starting as faculty at The University of Texas at Austin in 2012. Finkelstein serves as the Director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Cosmic Frontier Center and is the recipient of a Hubble Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship and multiple teaching awards.

The AAS is delighted to honor Dr. Finkelstein with the June 2025 Fred Kavli Plenary Lectureship.