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We have a successful JWST Cycle 1 program that will obtain the deepest spectra of high redshift galaxies with the $10 billion telescope, program 2123: "A Pathfinder for JWST Spectroscopy: Deep High Spectral Resolution Maps of Galaxies over 1<z<6."  We sincerely hope that these data will lead to ground-breaking results on how galaxies evolve over time, and in particular about the complex and violent activities of the era first few generations of galaxies in the Universe.  And we hope the data will also come with some interesting surprises that will challenge our understanding of the physical processes in the nascent Universe.  Our project will be the first to create spectral maps of galaxies using a new technique that we developed.  Here is a good introductory video on this general subject area.

There are myriad possible science projects, and the students will be briefly introduced to each before they decide on a given project.  Here are a few possible projects; there are many more.  (1) Measure how the dynamics of galaxies evolve from the early Universe to today.  From theory, we expect that galaxies have chaotic and complex dynamics early-on.  It is unclear whether these early systems are even virialized, or perhaps can even be called galaxies.  Our data will address this.  (2) We will also have deep enough spectra to measure the violent outflows that are expected in the early Universe.  This is crucial for determining how the Universe was reionized.  Significant and ubiquitous outflows are needed for this phase transition in the Universe... or perhaps our current ideas are incorrect. (3) Susan Kassin and the newly re-branded "Slice and Dice" research group are looking for graduate students to work on this program.  Kassin is an AURA Associate Astronomer with tenure and a research scientist at JHU.  Students will be involved in choosing the science (kinematics, outflows, metallicities, star-formation histories) which can cover observations and simulations

A particular strength of our research group is that we all study the same galaxies from a different perspective, and then combine these perspectives to  form a more complete picture.

In addition, Kassin is also working on a proposal to find the first stars to form in the Universe with JWST.  The idea is to catch them when they explode as "pair instability supernovae."  In collaboration with theorists, Kassin is calculating what is necessary for such a survey.  

Those of us in "Slice and Dice" are passionate about diversity efforts, and hope that our group is a welcoming and safe space for new ideas and scientific and technical development.  

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