Thomas M. Hughes

KIAA Fellow
Room: 
207
Phone Number: 
62759748
Research interests: 
Star formation and chemical evolution of spiral galaxies; AGN feedback; environmental effects on nearby galaxy evolution.
Research Highlights: 

 

I study galaxies in the nearby universe, with a keen interest in using observations to disentangle the effects of internal processes from the effect of the environment, in order to identify the dominant processes driving galaxy evolution. This requires large multiwavelength datasets that trace the main baryonic components and which cover galaxies inhabiting a range of different environments, from clusters of galaxies to isolated objects. In recent work, I combined optical spectroscopy with near-infrared photometry to study the nature of the stellar mass - metallicity relation (pictured below), an important tool for observationally constraining current models of galaxy formation and evolution. Other areas of interest include supermassive black holes and globular clusters.