Frontier Fellows Tackle Humanity’s Biggest Question: Where Do We Come From?

This fall, The University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Astronomy welcomes the inaugural class of postdoctoral fellows to its Cosmic Frontier Center. The Frontier Fellows will support the center, which launched earlier this year, in its mission to uncover the origins of galaxies in the universe through a combination of theoretical and observational astrophysics.

“Exemplifying cutting-edge research from The University of Texas at Austin, the Cosmic Frontier Center demonstrates our commitment to bold new directions in research,” said David Vanden Bout, dean of the College of Natural Sciences. “The Center will tackle the persistent mysteries of our universe by matching top scientists with the most precise instruments and the newest research techniques. The breakthroughs from this new collaboration could very well change how we see our place in the cosmos.” 

The Cosmic Frontier Center uses several sources to study the early universe, but the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is of particular importance. That’s because it can peer further into the cosmos than any instrument before it. As a result, it is transforming our understanding of this foundational period.

“We are in the middle of a veritable revolution, brought about by the JWST, allowing humanity to probe cosmic history back to the very beginning of time, when the first stars and galaxies lit up the primordial universe,” said Volker Bromm, co-director of the Cosmic Frontier Center. “It is a privilege that our UT Astronomy Program has the chance to play a prominent role in this endeavor.”

As new instruments come online, the center is poised to harness their power as well. This will include ESA’s Euclid Observatory, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and the Giant Magellan Telescope, for which UT Austin is a founding partner. However, for now, JWST remains the premier instrument for studying our cosmic origins. 

Not surprisingly, getting observing time on the telescope is difficult. However, UT Austin astronomers have earned a substantial amount of it. “The competition is fierce,” said Steven Finkelstein, director of the Cosmic Frontier Center. “It’s an international resource and the fact that 20 percent of the time in JWST’s first three years was won by teams that are led by or include UT astronomers is amazing.” 

This level of access is thanks, in part, to the fact that several large JWST programs – including the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science Survey (CEERS), COSMOS-Web, the Next Generation Deep Extragalactic Exploratory Public Survey (NGDEEP), GLIMPSE, and the CANDELS-Area Prism Epoch of Reionization Survey (CAPERS) - are led by or include key members in UT Austin’s Department of Astronomy. The Cosmic Frontier Center connects that talent and its collective knowledge together for greater insight and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Though the center is new, its scientists have already established themselves as leaders in the field. They have led the discovery of one of the earliest known galaxies, Masie’s Galaxy; shown that an abundance of large galaxies 500-700 million years after the Big Bang is significantly higher than established models predicted; and captured one of JWST’s first wide-field images of the universe, an astonishing view teeming with over 25,000 galaxies. Not surprisingly, the enthusiasm to join this pioneering center was high. “The response we had was overwhelming,” said Finkelstein. “We received over 100 applications for two fellowship spots before the center even officially launched. It shows that people recognize the large number of excellent scientists we have working here at UT.”

The incoming Frontier Fellows are Alessandra Venditti, who will earn her Ph.D. from La Sapienza University in Rome later this year; and Vasily Kokorev, who earned his Ph.D. from the Cosmic Dawn Center in Copenhagen in 2022. Their research will focus on the formation of the first stars from a theoretical perspective, and observational study of black holes in early galaxies, respectively. Only a few months into his fellowship, Kokorev has already had a paper on early black holes accepted to The Astrophysical Journal.

“The two fellows represent the two pillars of our effort, where we envision a close-knit synergy between the theoretical and observational side of studying the early universe,” said Bromm. “Both are exceptionally talented, and we look forward to seeing them further pushing into the unknown at cosmic dawn during their time at UT.”

In addition to advancing research on the early universe, the center will host workshops tackling this epoch’s most perplexing questions. The first will be held this November in partnership with the Simons Foundation’s Center for Computational Astrophysics. It will bring together leading experts to focus on the extreme star formation processes responsible for unexpectedly big and bright galaxies observed 300-700 million years after the Big Bang. Through three days of talks and discussion, the workshop hopes to push forward new insights – and pose new questions - on this hotly debated topic.

To learn more about the Cosmic Frontier Center, visit astronomy.utexas.edu/research/cosmic-frontier-center.