When, how, and why did the first stars, galaxies, and galaxy clusters form? In what ways did large-scale structure influence these first structures? And what sources of radiation reionized the Universe? These questions, which drive modern extragalactic astronomy, are core to my research. Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), I have worked to: (#1) identify, characterize, and understand galaxies and galaxy clusters in the very early Universe; while (#2) connecting the physical properties of the most distant known galaxies and galaxy clusters with their large-scale environment. In particular, I have made numerous and impactful contributions toward the selection, photometric redshift determination, physical property inference, and interpretation of galaxies and galaxy clusters at the redshift frontier. I have extensive experience interpreting observations from three out of the four instruments on JWST: the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), and the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), with a specific emphasis in the wide field slitless spectroscopic (WFSS) observing mode of NIRCam.

I believe that sharing knowledge with others, which in turn educates and inspires the future generations of humanity and scientists, is one of the most important and significant activities that we can do as astronomers. To this end, I have spent my time mentoring, teaching, and tutoring local undergraduate students in mathematics and science at both the introductory and advanced level. While an undergraduate student, I co-organized a weekly extragalactic seminar at Princeton University. During graduate school, I co-organized a bi-weekly extragalactic seminar at the University of Arizona, which included lectures and workshops related to using JWST and understanding the high-redshift Universe. I recently started educating amateur astronomers and high school students in Tucson, AZ about JWST. Furthermore, my research related to my help discovering and understanding the most distant known galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0, has been featured in national and international press, including a blog post from NASA that already has more than one million impressions, and an interview filmed by the University of Arizona that already has more than one thousand views.