.: My Research The universe entered a dark age 300,000 years
after the big bang as the primordial radiation cooled and
shifted into the infrared. Darkness remained until the first
non-linearities developed, eventually evolving into the galaxies
that illuminate the universe today. To understand how the
galaxies in the early universe evolved into those that we see
locally requires an understanding of the chemical and star
formation history of galaxies. I study how the amount of metals
and star formation changes in galaxies over cosmic time using
spectroscopy from the optical and near-infrared spectrographs on
the Keck and Subaru telescopes on Mauna Kea. I compare the
observed star formation and chemical properties of galaxies with
detailed theoretical models including stellar evolution
synthesis models and detailed photoionization models. Web site
contents © Copyright Lisa Kewley 2006, All rights reserved.