Ryan M. Lau

Hi, I'm an astronomer at Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, CA, and was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. My research focuses on massive evolved stars, infrared transients, dust production/destruction, obscured high-mass x-ray binaries, and star formation.

I'm an infrared astronomer, which is a tricky wavelength to observe since almost everything around us (on Earth) is emitting infrared photons like crazy, and water vapor in our atmosphere absorbs infrared photons from the astronomical targets we are interested in. However, we can overcome these challenges with observatories up on the highest mountains on Earth, observatories that fly into the stratosphere, and observatories up in space. This is why it's great having awesome facilities like Keck, Subaru, Gemini, SOFIA, and JWST.

The science that we can learn from these infrared observatories is absolutely worth it. In the infrared, we can peer into the densest clouds to reveal the birth of new stars, probe the material ejected from massive stars as they near the end of their lives, and even trace the outcome of merging neutron stars that also produce gravitational waves signatures.

(Banner Image Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/JPL-Caltech/Lau et al. 2022)