Searching for the First Galaxies
and Studying Their Impact on Reionization

I study the processes by which galaxies evolve through time, from extremely small systems in the early universe, to form large galaxies today like our own Milky Way. I discover these galaxies using imaging from space telescopes. Members of my group and I study these images to both discover and characterize distant galaxies, and we use the largest ground-based telescopes to follow them up spectroscopically. I am also heavily involved in the HETDEX project, and we are working to build the next great extragalactic legacy field in a 24 square degree region of the HETDEX survey (the HETDEX/SHELA field) where we are amassing imaging from the optical to infrared from both ground and space-based telescopes. In the near future we will use data from the James Webb Space Telescope to push even closer to the Big Bang, using data from the CEERS and WDEEP programs to discover some of the earliest galaxies to form in the universe.

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Research Summary

Click here to read more details about my research both with space telescopes and state-of-the-art ground-based observations.

Research Group

I'm fortunate to work with an excellent and diverse group of graduate students and postdocs. Click here to see what they've been working on, as well as where our group's alumni have gone off to.

Teaching Resources

Head here to see the growing list of teaching resources I have developed for classes of various levels. Feel free to contact me if you'd like more details on any of these items.



Contact Information

Steven L. Finkelstein
Department of Astronomy
The University of Texas at Austin
2515 Speedway Blvd Stop C1400
Austin, TX 78712, USA