Team

Career trajectory:

• 2013-2015

  • 3 Summer internships at Five College Radio Astronomy Department, Amherst,MA;  Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico; National Radio Astronomy Observatory - Green Bank, W.V. 

• 2016 - B.Sc. (Astronomy) + B.Sc. (Neuroscience) from UMass Amherst

•  2021 - PhD (Astrophysics) University of Bonn / International Max Planck Research School for Astronomy and Astrophysics - Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy

•  2020-2024 European Southern Observatory Fellowship - Santiago, Chile

•  2024 - 2027 - ALMA NAOJ Fellowship

Primary roles in PASSAGES:

• Project manager and collaboration co-PI

• Leading project scientist 

  • multi-wavelength observing campaigns

  • Lead data reducer 

General Scientific Interests:

• Galaxy evolution and star formation across cosmic time

• Multi-wavelength spectroscopy 

• non-LTE radiative transfer modeling of the cold gas and dust

• Novel star formation rate and molecular gas mass diagnostics

• Utilizing the power of nature's light amplifier: strong lensing

Career trajectory:

•  B.S. (Physics) 1986 from Caltech

•  PhD (Astronomy) 1992 from Harvard University

•  Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Caltech 1992-1995

•  Jansky Research Fellow at NRAO 1995-1999

•  Assistant Scientist at NRAO 1999-2000

•  Assistant Professor at UMass Amherst 2000-2004

•  Associate Professor at UMass Amherst 2004-2011

•  Full Professor at UMass Amherst 2011-present

Primary roles in PASSAGES:

•  Collaboration organizational activities

•  Science projects with ALMA, LMT, and other facilities

General Scientific Interests:

•  Gas accretion and fueling of massive star formation in dusty starburst

• galaxies

•  Galaxy interactions/mergers and galaxy environment as drivers of galaxy

• evolution

•  Strong lensing as a cosmic telescope

Career Trajectory:  

B. S. Physics and in Astronomy at University of Arizona 

Ph.D. Astrophysics at University of California at Berkeley

NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship and Council Fellow at Princeton University

Lecturer at Dublin City University

Assist. Prof. at University of San Francisco

Associate Prof at University of Arizona

Science interests: gravitational lensing, galaxy evolution, growth of massive structures

Science is for all to enjoy - come which ever level you are and learn some astronomy with us!

Career trajectory:

• B.A. (Math, Physics) 2015 from Bowdoin College (Brunswick, Maine)

• Ph.D. (Astronomy) 2023 from UMass-Amherst

• Exploration Postdoctoral Fellow at Arizona State University 2022-present

Primary roles in PASSAGES:

• Lens modeling (interpretation of intrinsic properties and source-plane structure of the sample; characterizing foreground environments)

• Data reduction and processing for ALMA, JWST, JVLA, HST programs

• Mapping of gas, dust, star formation, and stellar mass in DSFGs at (sub-)kpc scales to better understand the physical processes in star-forming galaxies at Cosmic Noon

General Scientific Interests:

• Evolution and quenching of galaxies at Cosmic Noon

• The effects of stellar feedback in regulating star formation and in driving kinematic turbulence

• Strong gravitational lensing as a cosmic telescope

James Lowenthal (Smith College) specializes in high-redshift galaxies and galaxy formation and evolution, using mostly optical and near-IR imaging and spectroscopy but also UV, FIR and radio.  He joined Smith in 2002 after 5 years on faculty at UMass-Amherst, 4 years as a postdoc at UC Santa Cruz, 2 years before that as postdoc at STScI/JHU, grad school before that at U Arizona, and a BS from Yale before that.  In PASSAGES, he has focused on the HST/WFC3 images and Gemini images and spectroscopy of our sample of lensed DSFGs.  

Outside of PASSAGES and teaching and working with undergrads at Smith, he is active in worldwide efforts to protect the dark and quiet sky from light pollution and satellite interference.

I am an astronomy professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I am primarily interested in high-energy phenomena and processes in extreme star-forming galaxies. I led the observing programs to study a sample of our sample HyLIRGs and have participated in multi-wavelength efforts to understand these extreme objects.  

Bio:
My astro career started with a Masters degree at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra,  where I studied the ionised gas in Cosmic Noon galaxies. From there, I moved to Heidelberg, conducting my PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. For my PhD, I switched focus to the cold ISM of high-redshift galaxies. After graduating in 2021, I worked as a fellow at ESO's headquarters (in Garching by Munich), broadening my research on high-redshift galaxies but still focusing mainly on the cold ISM. I am now going full circle — returning to the ANU as Associate Professor. 

Involvement in PASSAGES:

So far I have been involved in acquiring new data, planning new projects related to cold gas studies, and am now starting to become involved in data reduction and kinematic modelling.

Main scientific interests

The PASSAGES data set serves as a unique testbed for understanding how star formation is regulated in the most extreme systems, enabling us to test how the processes leading up to and following star formation shape galaxies. I am mainly interested in using PASSAGES to constrain the 3D distribution and turbulence of the cold (vs ionised) gas in starburst galaxies – thereby testing models of star-formation regulation and disk galaxy evolution in a regime not covered by any other galaxy sample.

The PASSAGES team is an amazingly supportive, diverse and global collaboration and a joy to be part of. Thanks to PASSAGES, I am now becoming involved in many incredibly exciting projects that are pushing my scientific boundaries.

Francesca got her PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching (Germany) in 2020. Following this, she moved to Copenhagen (Denmark) where she worked at the Cosmic Dawn Center as a DAWN and Marie Curie fellow. In June 2024, Francesca relocated to Groningen (Netherlands) as a Veni Fellow and also secured a tenure track position as an Assistant Professor.

Role in PASSAGES: 

Leading and coordinating projects on galaxy kinematics and dynamics and modelling of the lensed targets.

Scientific Interests:

I’m interested in understanding how star-forming galaxies are influenced by different astrophysical mechanisms (e.g., feedback, gas accretion) through studies of their kinematics, dynamics and morphology. The study of the dynamics of galaxy disks allows me to explore the amount of dark matter within galaxies and investigate its nature.

I am currently an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Prior to my faculty appointment at UBC, I was a postdoctoral fellow at ESO and at the Dunlap Institute. My research interest is to understand the physical processes affecting star formation in distant galaxies, including feedback, mergers, and environmental effects.

Within the PASSAGES collaboration, I hope to contribute to collecting optical and near-infrared observations for characterizing the large-scale environment of dusty star-forming galaxies.

I am currently an Assistant Professor at Arizona State University and the Endowed Professor of Galaxy Evolution in the Beus Center for Cosmic Foundations. My research is aimed at understanding the imprint of environment on the overall baryon cycle in high-redshift cluster galaxies — from gas accretion and star formation to outflows and quenching. 

Eric Faustino Jiménez Andrade obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Bonn, Germany. Later he was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the USA. He has been an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Radioastronomy and Astrophysics (IRyA) of the  National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)  since 2022.

His research interests lie in the field of galaxy formation and evolution. He primarily uses observations from the Very Large Array (VLA), Atacama Large Millimeter Array (VLA), and Hubble Space Telescope to explore the structural evolution of galaxies. He investigates how star formation and black hole activity shape galaxies across cosmic time.

Kevin Harrington kindly invited Eric to join the PASSAGES collaboration in 2018. Since then, Eric has mainly contributed to the analysis and interpretation of the VLA and ALMA observations of the PASSAGES sources.

Career history: 

Currently I am working as a staff scientist at NRAO supporting ALMA. Before I joined NRAO, I was a member of Allegro, Dutch ALMA ARC node. 

Involvement: 

I am helping radio-mm data (from VLA and ALMA) processing for the PASSAGES sources.

Scientific interest: My interest relevant for the PASSAGES collaboration is to study the gas and dust in the high-z starburst galaxies and to understand their statistical properties

Working groups: SGL, SFUNC, KIND

Hannah got her PhD from the University of Groningen in 2020. She was a postdoctoral researcher at Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics from 2020 to 2023. She is now a staff astronomer at ESO Garching working in the ALMA Regional Centre. Her interests are strong lensing, dynamics, and the structure of the cold interstellar medium of high-redshift galaxies. 

Working groups: SFUNC, KIND

Current scientific positions: 

Since 2021: staff researcher (tenured) at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain; research group leader

Educational Background: 

Ph.D. (01/2005) in Physics Astronomy, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany and at Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany

Ramón y Cajal fellow (tenure-track) at IAC (2016-2021), Senior postdoc at University of Vienna, Austria (2011-2016), Postdoctoral researcher at CEA Saclay, France (2009- 2011); Research Associate at MPIA Heidelberg, Germany (2004-2009)

Research interests: 

galaxy formation and evolution, high-z star-forming galaxies and galaxy (proto)clusters, sub/mm astronomy (single dish and mm-interferometers), calibration of (MIR/FIR) ground-/space-based instruments.

Working groups: SFUNC, GORP

Dr. Pasetto studies radiofrequency polarization in astrophysical objects. In particular, she investigates the polarization associated with the jets from the central regions of active galactic nuclei (AGN).

Working groups: SFUNC, GORP

Mari Polletta is a senior researcher at the Institute of Space Astrophysics and Cosmic Physics in Milan (Italy).  Her research interests focus on understanding how galaxies evolve, with emphasis on starbursting galaxies and on special environments such as galaxy protoclusters. Her research is based on the analysis of multiwavelength data and her approach combines the exploitation of large surveys and in depth investigations of outstanding individual systems.

• Career trajectory:

I have had a circuitous path to being an astronomer, starting as a computer engineer in my undergrad to working as an instrumentation engineer at the Arecibo Observatory and finally getting a PhD in Astronomy at Cornell University. I am driven by the pursuit of ever so challenging observations required to understand the formation and evolution of galaxies in the early Universe. In order to push the frontiers of our understanding, I have taken a two prong approach – 

1. I am an expert Astronomical Instrumentation builder with expertise in infrared (IR )to radio astronomy detectors, optics and cryogenics and, 

2. I use multi-wavelength data to measure the physical conditions of the gas in various phases of the Interstellar Medium (ISM) of galaxies in the early Universe. 

• Role and involvement in PASSAGES:

Involvement in the PASSAGES collaboration is as a contributor to the design, implementation and the scientific interpretation of several observing programs that allow us to probe star-formation activity using atomic and molecular spectral lines and their diagnostic line ratios, obscuration effects due to dust and identifying  supernova candidates in extremely star-forming galaxies at z>2 using near/mid-infrared imaging.

• Scientific interests:

The PASSAGES sample is unique in terms of its large apparent brightness and the incredible spatial details we can access due to high magnification due to gravitational lensing. Massive stars and Dust play a disproportionate role in the evolution of galaxies and I am most interested to identify the formation mechanisms of dust and its link with massive stars in the early Universe. I primarily use fine-structure infrared lines of C, N and O and nebular models to measure the radiation fields, gas density, metallicity and dynamics of the gas associated with on-going star-formation and combining these measurements with other data to understand the evolution of the stellar population in these galaxies.

I am interested in the most massive galaxies at each cosmic epoch, and how they interact with their cosmic environments. Within PASSAGES, I am curious to environments that host these dusty star-forming galaxies, as well as how massive starbursting events affect the galaxies close to these PASSAGES sources. The Planck all-sky selection means we are uniquely sensitive to the most extreme examples of cluster build-up in the Universe.

Brief CV:

- 2023 - Present: Wallenberg dust post-doc on observations of distant dusty galaxies at Chalmers, Sweden

- 2018 - 2023: ALMA postdoc at Nagoya University, Japan on dust production in the early Universe

- 2014 - 2018: PhD on the most distant, brightest Herschel galaxies (i.e., HerBS - Bakx+18)

- 2008 - 2014: BSc and MSc in Applied Physics at Delft, the Netherlands, with a focus on astronomical instrumentation on the (DESHIMA)[http://deshima.ewi.tudelft.nl/index.html] project

2020-2023: PhD, European Southern Observatory, Garching

2023-now: Postdoc fellow, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Garching

I joined PASSAGE in 2024 with a joint interest in exploring polarised dust emission in a broad sample of HyLIRGs. I am also contributing to the data reduction of the ERIS survey of PASSAGES.

what your main interests are scientifically:

I am interested in the properties and environments of dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs). Specifically, I have led the multi-band survey of DSFGs within all the ALMA calibrator footprints and a spectroscopic survey of the proto-clusters signpost by DSFGS. Recently, I have been mainly working on the dust polarisation studies of the strongly lensed DSFGs.

Personal website: https://cjhang.github.io/

Career trajectory:

• 2020-2024: ESO-ALMA Fellowship

• 2018-2019: ING Studentship

• 2014-2018: FPI-MINECO predoctoral grant, UCM

• 2016: FPI-MINECO predoctoral research stay grant, UC. Berkeley

• 2013-2014: ESA Young graduate trainee

• 2013: AAO Student grant

Role in PASSAGES and scientific interests: I have been a PASSAGES active member since 2022. My main scientific interest lies in understanding the formation of the most massive galaxies through a multiwavelength and multi-phase perspective. Within the collaboration, I share my expertise in photometric and spectroscopic analysis of faint objects and a deep understanding of DSFGs. 

Working Group: SFUNC, KIND

PhD candidate at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. I am interested in high energy phenomena like AGN and High Mass X-ray Binaries (HMXBs) in these extreme lensed systems at z>2. Additionally, I focus on galaxy clusters and protoclusters. My main contribution to the team is focused on X-ray analysis using the XMM-Newton and Chandra observatories. I obtained my bachelors in Physics at Delaware State University. During my undergrad I had the opportunity to work with Dr. Keren Sharon at the University of Michigan and Dr. Karl Gebhardt at the University of Texas, Austin. 

• Currently, I am a PhD student in Canada. Before that, I spent 1.5 years of my PhD in Denmark, completed a 2-year master’s program in the Netherlands, and earned my undergraduate degree in China. My career so far has been mostly related to submillimeter astronomy. 

• Before my PhD, my main interest was star formation and the interstellar medium in the local universe. I studied the dense gas in nearby galaxies and how the ratios of isotopologues can be influenced by the age of the stellar populations and some potential chemical effects. During my PhD, my interest is shifted to the early universe. In particular, I am intrigued by some of the most spectacular phenomena, such as radio-AGN and dusty starbursts, and how they correlate with their environment. Now I spend most of my effort characterizing some protocluster systems such as SPT2349-56 and the properties of their interstellar medium.

In PASSAGES, I aim to investigate the large-scale environment of these HyLIRG systems and plan to study them through the narrow-band imaging.

I am interested in studying galactic star formation, AGN feedback, 

galaxy clusters, the circumgalactic medium, and molecular clouds through 

radio and infrared observations. I have been a PhD student at the 

University of British Columbia, Canada, since 2021, focusing on the 

environmental effects on galaxy evolution through both observations and 

simulations. Currently, I am studying the multiphase circumgalactic 

medium of brightest cluster galaxies using ALMA and JWST. In 2022-2023, 

I worked as a research assistant at the European Southern Observatory 

(ESO) headquarters in Germany as part of the ESO studentship program. I 

completed my MSc in Physics in 2020 at Sharif University of Technology, 

Iran, where I studied the non-linear spatial distribution of galaxies in 

the context of the cosmic web. I plan to contribute to the PASSAGES 

collaboration by assisting with the analysis of radio and infrared data 

for the sample galaxies.

PhD student from the University of British Columbia, supervised by Dr. Allison Man. Part of the UBC Extragalactic Astrophysics Group. 

Studying and identifying protoclusters at z~2 around dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs). Interested in the role of the environment on cluster evolution beyond Cosmic Noon (z~2). I am planning on getting involved in PASSAGES telescope proposals and the data analysis of cluster environments. I love to travel and hope to see some observatories in-person.

I began my academic journey at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I obtained a Bachelor of Science in both Astronomy and Geology. While there, I utilized the Planck Catalog of Compact Sources, gravitational lensing phenomena, statistical analysis, and follow up observations by the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT) and Green Bank Telescope (GBT), to search for extremely luminous, high redshift, submillimeter galaxies (SMGs). The analysis portion of my research included characterization of the population of Planck-selected SMGs. Observations of SMGs paired with accurate lensing models can be used to derive structural details of gas and star formation, leading to new insight into the formation of massive starburst galaxies in the early universe.

Upon completion of my undergraduate studies, I attended Texas Tech University where, I completed my M.S. Geosciences degree. My area of focus was planetary geology. I used the principles of geomorphology, remote sensing, and Geographic Information Systems Technology (GIST) to model the emplacement of a Venusian volcanic channel known as Kallistos Vallis. Kallistos Vallis has many morphological similarities to the Martian Outflow Channels and is important to our study of Venusian volcanism as a whole.

While at Cornell I am working with my advisor Dr. Michael Mellon to investigate the geophysical environment of Mars’ Jezero crater. Studies include analyses of Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover ground penetrating radar (RIMFAX) data and supporting aspects of instrument operations and data interpretations. Mars is incredibly important in our search for life within the solar system. It is believed that early in Mars history vast quantities of liquid water flowed over its surface and that it may have contained the required components for microbial life to have evolved. The possible future ramifications of this research cannot be understated, as it may be of significant historic, scientific, and societal value.

I myself am a non-traditional, first generation college student. When I’m not conducting scientific research, I serve part time as a logistician in the Air National Guard. My future aspiration is to gain employment with NASA and eventually become a Principal Investigator on a robotic mission to one of the many icy objects that comprise our outer solar system.

Career Trajectory:

- 2021-Currently: PhD (Astrophysics) in IA-FORTH & University of Crete,Greece

- 2022-2023: European Southern Observatory Studentship in Garching,

Germany

- 2020-2021: Internship in Centro de Astrobiología CSIC-INTA, ESAC,

Spain

- 2013-2020: B.Sc. (Physics) and M.Sc. (Astrophysics) in Universidad

Complutense de Madrid, Spain

General Scientific Interests:

- Quasar-host galaxy properties and evolution with redshift

- AGN activity and feedback

- Hot Dust Obscured Galaxies

- Interstellar medium observations with ALMA and JWST

I am a graduate student at UC Berkeley in astronomy and an NSF fellow. 

I graduated with a B.S. in Astronomy, Physics, and Math and a minor in Computer Science at the University of Arizona in the Spring of 2019. My interests broadly span the many applications of strong gravitational lensing, from using lensed supernovae to constrain the Hubble constant to studying the chemical enrichment of lensed super star clusters. 

I joined PASSAGES in 2020 through my work with Prof. Brenda Frye, where I have predominantly been investigating the PLCK G165.7+67.0 galaxy cluster field. Within this collaboration, I hope to continue to better understand galaxy cluster lenses, as well as star formation at cosmic noon.