My research work covers a broad range, including galaxy spectral energy distribution modeling
during my master program at Yonsei University in South Korea, stellar evolution, isochrones
and LMC star clusters studies during my PhD program at Yale University, and observational studies
on active galactic nuclei (AGN) physics and galaxy evolution for my Ph.D. thesis.
More details of my previous research is described here: previous
research.
As a postdoctoral scholar at UC Santa Barbara, my research has been focused on the connection
between the growth of supermassive black holes and galaxy evolution.
Also, I have been involved in several other projects, including studies of AGN variability, accretion disk,
and Virgo cluster galaxies with multi-wavelength data.
Current projects include:
1. Cosmic Evolution of Black Holes and Galaxies
This project is to investigate cosmic evolution of black holes and galaxies
by measuring the evolution of scaling relations between black hole mass and their host galaxy properties.
For this work I frequently go to Hawaii to use the Keck telescope, one of the largest and best telescopes in the world.
Also, I use data taken from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).
AMUSE-Virgo is an extensive observational campaign that makes use of NASA's great observatories and
the Very Large Array to study the properties of super-massive black holes at the center of 100 galaxies in the Virgo cluster.
This project aims to quantify the role of faint accreting black holes in influencing the evolution of the whole host galaxy.
3. Lower Luminosity AGNs: SEDs and Accretion rates
We are performing a multiwavelength campaign (Chandra, HST, Spitzer, and GALEX)
to constrain the SEDs from the hard X-ray to the mid-IR, and to measure accretion rates.
Our sample, comprising 24 Seyferts, has unprecedented high quality Keck spectroscopy and
HST imaging already invested to extract host galaxy bulge properties, estimate black hole masses, and separate nuclear and host optical luminosities.