Research
My big goal would be to uncover some of the missing steps in the process of galaxy formation, especially at high redshift and the influence of star clusters (one can dream, right?). Telescopes have already revealed their present-day beauty and now with e.g. JWST we now also get a look on how they looked at higher redshift, but the path from these basic “blops” to fully-formed galaxies remains a puzzle. Imagine it as if we’re putting together a complex piece of furniture, using an IKEA manual. We’ve got the list of parts (stars, gas, and dark matter) and we know what the finished product should look like (galaxies). What we’re after are the instructions that bridge the gap, those vital steps in between. I have been working on bridging this gap in understanding galaxy formation by using powerfull simulations, I mainly focus on the formation and evolution of galactic structures in Milky Way analogues.