The extra-galactic astronomy group focuses on the formation and evolution of galaxies since the Big Bang, though scaling relations in galaxies, their dependencies on morphology of galaxies. What shaped the galaxies of today to look like they do? Do galaxies in the distant past, seen far away, look very different? How do mass, star-formation and gas supply all relate to their appearance? How much is obscured by dense dust in the interstellar medium?

The extragalactic group uses a mix of archival searches and new telescope observations. The emphasis lies on observational astronomy using a portfolio of telescopes and techniques. The effects of evolution can be directly observed in deep fields (e.g. LADUMA, PEARLS or CEERS) due to the light’s travel time or in the fossil record of galaxy shapes and features (e.g. with S4G or GAMA).

Undergraduate research emphases data-science approaches using existing catalogs (e.g. GAMA) to answer new research questions. Graduate research involved often new observations with ground-based and space-based telescopes.