Texas A&M University - Department of Physics and Astronomy
George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy



Casey Papovich

Professor of Physics and Astronomy
Marsha L. '69 and Ralph F. Schilling '68 Chair in Physics and Astronomy

Texas A&M University
Department of Physics and Astronomy
College Station, TX 77843-4242

George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy

Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS)

Office: Mitchell Institute 325
Phone: 979-862-2704
Facsimile: 979-845-2590
Email:
Office Hours: by appointment
Twitter Handle: @CaseyPapovich


At SXSW 2017 (#TAMUxSXSW)

Astronomy at Texas A&M University (click for more information)

  • Astronomy Group and Research at Texas A&M
  • (Unofficial) Texas A&M Astronomy Graduate Student Webpage
  • Events at the Mitchell Institute, including a weekly Astronomy Seminar series
  • Information for Prospective Graduate Students in Physics and Astronomy
  • Texas A&M Univ. offers both Masters and PhD degrees in Astronomy, following either an Astrophysics and Astrostatistics track
  • Research - Cosmology, Astrophysics, Formation and Evolution of Galaxies

      Casey Papovich's research is in the areas of observational astrophysics and cosmology, the formation and evolution of the most distant galaxies, and the growth of large scale structures of galaxies. His recent work focuses on observations of the properties of the first galaxies, constraints on cosmological reionization, quantifying the growth and assembly of stellar mass in galaxies in the early universe, the formation of galaxy clusters and their properties, and using satellite galaxies to test of the nature of dark matter and feedback mechanisms in galaxy evolution.
      Dr. Papovich's research utilizes data from all of NASA's space-based Great Observatories (Hubble, Spitzer, and Chandra) and the James Webb Space Telescope. He uses the largest terrestrial telescopes, including the Gemini Observatory, Magellan Telescopes, Keck Observatory, and the ALMA Observatory. He has plans for the 25m Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), in which Texas A&M University is a founding partner. He is involved in multiple, ongoing international collaborations, projects, and surveys, including the ZFOURGE, CANDELS, CLEAR, HETDEX, Dark Energy Survey, LSST projects. He is an investigator on the JWST CEERS Early Release Science program, co-PI of The Next Generation Deep Extragalactic Exploratory Public (NGDEEP) survey (a Cycle 1 large program), and many other JWST Cycle 1 programs.

    Press, Videos, and Newsworthy (click for more)

  • 2023-01-10 --- JWST finds that ancient galaxies contain fewer stars than we expected
  • 2022 July --- A First Year of Discovery, Inference, Review Essay
  • 2022-07-22 --- Four revelations from the Webb telescope about distant galaxies
  • 2022-06-27 --- Studying Galaxy Growth Spurts in the Early Universe with NASA's Roman
  • 2021-10-13 --- Kuchment, Papovich Elected as 2021 American Physical Society Fellows
  • 2020-02-17 --- [Video] Hubble Past and Present: Witnessing the Formation of Galaxies, Public lecture through the Aspen Center for Physics
  • 2019-07-17 --- [Video] Texas A&M Science - I am Science
  • 2018-02-27 --- NASA cuts would deal a blow to Texas science
  • 2017-11-30 --- Texas A&M Astronomer to Help Test Capabilities of Telescope His Faculty Chair's Namesake Helped Build
  • 2017-03-17 --- [Video] Interacting with Big Data at SXSW 2017 (#TAMUxSXSW)
  • 2016-12-20 --- Milky-Way-Like Galaxies Seen in their Awkward Adolescent Years
  • 2016-12-19 --- Texas A&M-Led Study Helps Prove Galaxy Evolution Theory
  • 2016-08-30 --- Mapping the Rise and Fall of Galaxies
  • 2015-04-09 --- Our sun came late to the Milky Way's star-birth party
  • 2014-12-18 --- Four Science Faculty Among Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers
  • 2014-11-19 --- Texas A&M Astronomers Making Cosmic Inroads with NSF Grants
  • 2013-10-23 --- UT, Texas A&M Astronomers Discover Universe's Most Distant Galaxy
  • 2013-10-23 --- Astronomers Discover the Most Distant Galaxy Yet
  • 2012-12-03 --- College of Science Honors 2012 Award Winners
  • 2012-03-06 --- Hidden in Plain Sight: A&M Astronomers Help Find Distant Galaxy to Shed Light on Early Universe
  • 2010-05-11 --- Ancient City of Galaxies Looks Surprisingly Modern
  • 2010-05-11 --- Texas A&M-Led Research Finds Ancient City Of "Modern" Galaxies
  • 2010-03-08 --- Erukhimova, Katzgraber, and Papovich receive Teaching Excellence Awards
  • 2010-01-25 --- A&M profs gazing for start of the universe
  • 2010-01-20 --- Texas A&M Astronomers Find Baby Galaxies in Early Universe
  • 2009-12-04 --- Seeing Stars: Texas A&M Astronomy Program Reaches New Heights
  • Selected Papers (click for more)

  • Shen, Papovich, Yang, et al., 2023, ApJ, submitted CEERS: Spatially Resolved UV and mid-IR Star Formation in Galaxies at 0.2 < z < 2.5: The Picture from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes
  • Papovich, Cole, Yang, et al., 2022, ApJ, submitted CEERS Key Paper IV: Galaxies at 4<z<9 are Bluer than They Appear -- Characterizing Galaxy Stellar Populations from Rest-Frame ∼1 micron Imaging
  • Antwi-Danso, Papovich, Leja, et al. 2023, ApJ, in press, Beyond UVJ: Color Selection of Galaxies in the JWST Era
  • Papovich, Simons, Estrada-Carpenter, Matharu et al., 2022, ApJ, 937, 22, CLEAR: The Ionization and Chemical-Enrichment Properties of Galaxies at 1.1 < z < 2.3
  • Matharu, Papovich, Simons et al.., 2022, ApJ, 937, 16, CLEAR: The Evolution of Spatially Resolved Star Formation in Galaxies between 0.5 < z < 1.7 using H-alpha Emission Line Maps
  • Jung, Papovich, Finkelstein et al., 2022, ApJ, in press, CLEAR: Boosted Lyα Transmission of the Intergalactic Medium in UV bright Galaxies
  • Yang, Estrada-Carpenter, Papovich et al., 2021, ApJ, 921, 170, Do current X-ray observations capture most of the black-hole accretion at high redshifts?
  • Esdaile, Labbé, Glazebrook, Antwi-Danso, Papovich, et al., 2021, AJ, 162, 225, Introducing the FLAMINGOS-2 Split-K Medium Band Filters: The Impact on Photometric Selection of High-z Galaxies in the FENIKS-pilot survey
  • Simons, Papovich, Momcheva et al. 2021, ApJ, 923, 203, CLEAR: The Gas-Phase Metallicity Gradients of Star-Forming Galaxies at 0.6 < z < 2.6
  • Schreiber, Glazebrook, Papovich, et al., 2021, A&A, A low [CII]/[NII] ratio in the center of a massive galaxy at z = 3.7: Evidence for a transition to quiescence at high redshift?
  • Yang, Papovich, Bagley et al. 2021, ApJ, JWST/MIRI Simulated Imaging: Insights into Obscured Star-Formation and AGN for Distant Galaxies in Deep Surveys
  • Estrada-Carpenter, Papovich, Momcheva et al. 2020, ApJ, CLEAR. II. Evidence for Early Formation of the Most Compact Quiescent Galaxies at High Redshift
  • Kawinwanichakij, Papovich, Ciardullo et al. 2020, ApJ, On the (Lack of) Evolution of the Stellar Mass Function of Massive Galaxies from z = 1.5 to 0.4
  • Hutchison, Papovich, Finkelstein et al. 2019, ApJ, Near-infrared Spectroscopy of Galaxies During Reionization: Measuring C III] in a Galaxy at z = 7.5
  • Estrada-Carpenter, Papovich, Momcheva, et al. 2019, ApJ, CLEAR I: Ages and Metallicities of Quiescent Galaxies at 1.0 < z < 1.8 Derived from Deep Hubble Space Telescope Grism Data
  • Papovich et al. 2018, ApJ, The Effects of Environment on the Evolution of the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function
  • Kawinwanichakij, Papovich et al. 2017, ApJ, Effect of Local Environment and Stellar Mass on Galaxy Quenching and Morphology at 0.5 < z < 2.0
  • Papovich et al. 2016, Nature Astron., Large molecular gas reservoirs in ancestors of Milky Way-mass galaxies nine billion years ago
  • Salmon, Papovich, Long, et al. 2016, ApJ, Breaking the Curve with CANDELS: A Bayesian Approach to Reveal the Non-Universality of the Dust-Attenuation Law at High Redshift
  • Papovich, et al. 2016, ApJS, The Spitzer-HETDEX Exploratory Large-area Survey
  • Shipley, Papovich, et al. 2016, ApJ, A New Star Formation Rate Calibration from Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Emission Features and Application to High-redshift Galaxies
  • Kawinwanichakij, Quadri, Papovich et al. 2016, ApJ, Satellite Quenching and Galactic Conformity at 0.3 < z < 2.5
  • Finkelstein, Ryan, Papovich, et al. 2015, ApJ, The Evolution of the Galaxy Rest-frame Ultraviolet Luminosity Function over the First Two Billion Years
  • Papovich, Labbé, Quadri et al. 2015, ApJ, ZFOURGE/CANDELS: On the Evolution of M* Galaxy Progenitors from z = 3 to 0.5
  • Salmon, Papovich, Finkelstein, et al. 2015, ApJ, The Relation between Star Formation Rate and Stellar Mass for Galaxies at 3.5 ≤ z ≤ 6.5 in CANDELS
  • Tilvi, Papovich, Finkelstein, et al., 2014, ApJ, Rapid Decline of Lyα Emission toward the Reionization Era
  • Kawinwanichakij, Papovich, Quadri, et al. 2014, ApJ, The Distribution of Satellites around Massive Galaxies at 1 < z < 3 in ZFOURGE/CANDELS: Dependence on Star Formation Activity
  • Finkelstein, Papovich, et al. 2013, Nature, A galaxy rapidly forming stars 700 million years after the Big Bang at redshift 7.51
  • All peer-reviewed publications on NASA/ADS --- ORCID: 0000-0001-7503-8482

    Vitae (click for more)

  • Texas A&M University
      Fellow of the American Physical Society, 2021
      Professor, 2016 - present
      Marsha L. '69 and Ralph F. Schilling '68 Chair in Physics and Astronomy, 2015 - present
      Associate Professor, 2012 - 2016
      Assistant Professor, 2008 - 2012
  • University of Arizona
      Spitzer Fellow, 2005 - 2008
      Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2001 - 2005
  • Johns Hopkins University
      PhD Physics, 2002
  • College of William and Mary
      BS Physics with honors, 1995