Postdoctoral Fellowship: AAPF: Resolving the interstellar conditions and cosmic consequences of highly efficient star formation

Olivia Cooper is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Cooper will trace when, where and how efficient star formation is occurring and will use observations in the radio, optical and infrared to determine the dust and gas conditions that drive the efficiency. For the educational component of the project, Cooper will work with education and outreach experts at Boulder and Fiske Planetarium to develop, deliver and distribute new astronomy course material focusing on our home planet. Cooper will use ALMA and JWST data to investigate the evidence for highly efficient star formation in the very early universe. To accomplish this Cooper will provide the most complete mass census spanning both unobscured and obscured star-forming galaxies out to z~8, including gas and dynamical masses for the first time. Further, Cooper will characterize the physical conditions of gas and dust within extremely efficient star-forming galaxies. This work will contribute to the understanding of reionization, gas, dust, and stellar assembly, and galaxy formation models. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.