Spring 2024 Pappalardo Fellowships in Physics Symposium - Rohan Naidu

Rohan Naidu
NASA Hubble Fellow, 2022-2025; Pappalardo Fellow, 2025-2027
Astrophysics Observation, Instrumentation, and Experiment
“Into the First Billion Years with the JWST”
One of the last great unknowns in our history of the universe is when and how the first galaxies emerged after the Big Bang.
These galaxies transformed the cosmos: they illuminated the invisible scaffolding of dark matter that underpins the universe, they ionized the intergalactic reservoirs of hydrogen, and they synthesized the elements that would one day seed life on Earth.
Thanks to the JWST (James Webb Space Telescope), these enigmatic galaxies are finally coming into view.
In this talk, I will present early results on these sources, and preview ongoing experiments I am leading. I will discuss new classes of galaxies being revealed at the highest redshifts, such as remarkably luminous early systems and a surprisingly abundant population of obscured black holes.
Throughout, I will outline how the coming years promise a once-in-a-generation expansion of the astrophysical frontier to the brink of the Big Bang.