Exploring the rich uncharted territory of the distant universe.

As an observational extragalactic astronomer, I study galaxy formation and evolution over the past twelve billion years of cosmic time. In addition to my position as a faculty member in the Astronomy Department at UMass Amherst, I am also an associate faculty at the Cosmic Dawn Center in Copenhagen, Denmark. My students and I actively collaborate with DAWN, working towards pushing our detection of quiescent “red and dead” galaxies even earlier in time (within a billion years of the Big Bang itself!). We would like to understand the detailed physics of the structures and underlying stellar populations of these early massive galaxies.

With exquisite Hubble Space Telescope imaging and spectroscopy, our collaboration continues to explore the rich uncharted territory of the distant universe. Our understanding of the cosmos is fundamentally tied to the study of galaxies, the birthplace of all stars and life itself. As we reveal how galaxies are evolving from the earliest times to the present day, we are continually piecing together an intriguing timeline of the cosmos.

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves.

- William Shakespeare

DAWN-IRES Scholars Program

As the Director of the DAWN International Research Experience for Students (IRES) Scholars Program, I have the honor of sending cohorts of 8 students to the Cosmic Dawn Center in Copenhagen, Denmark each summer. More details about the program can be found here (https://www.dawnires.com), with an annual application deadline of February 1st. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the National Science Foundation for funding this research experience and enabling students a once in a lifetime opportunity to perform research relevant to current open questions in astrophysics and join the vibrant research atmosphere at DAWN.
Please Note: Due to a lapse in funding, the DAWN-IRES Scholars Program will not run summer of 2023. We hope to start back up for the summer of 2024.

WGBY’s Connecting Point (November 20, 2019)

A team of astronomers, including some from UMass Amherst, have discovered traces of a huge "monster" galaxy never seen before. UMass Assistant Professor of Astronomy Kate Whitaker and postdoctoral fellow Christina Williams at the University of Arizona are both UMass alumni. Whitaker and Williams worked together on the galaxy discovery project.

WHMP’s Talk the Talk (March 8, 2023)

UMass Assistant Professor of Astronomy Kate Whitaker joins the Talk the Talk radio show with Bill Newman and Buz Eisenberg, discussing recent with results from the James Webb Space Telescope UNCOVER program and a recent Nature paper on the “universe breakers”. (Note: the universe has not been broken, but we still have much to learn!). The discussion starts around 1 hour into this podcast.

CNS Women’s History Month Interview (March 1, 2023)

UMass Assistant Professor of Astronomy Kate Whitaker discusses her experience both in mentoring students and in the joy of new discoveries in astronomy in a short interview posted as part of a larger series celebrating Women’s History Month in March 2023.