Dr. Guido Roberts-Borsani

I'm an Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in the Astrophysics Group at University College London (UCL), and PI of the OMEGA ERC Starting Grant, working on galaxy formation and evolution over the first billion years of the Universe with the James Webb Space Telescope and 10-40m class ground-based facilities. My primary interests revolve around identifying the first generations of stars and galaxies, pinpointing the onset and evolution of metal and dust production, and constraining the birth and role of supermassive black holes.

Previously, I was an SNSF Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Geneva in Prof. Pascal Oesch's group and before that a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Prof. Tommaso Treu's group. I completed my Ph.D at University College London (UCL) working with Prof. Am‌élie Saintonge and Prof. Richard Ellis. For more information, see a list of my publications on NASA ADS or download my full CV below. Alternatively, click on the Research tab above to read about my past and current research.

The main focus of my research revolves around understanding the properties of the earliest astrophysical sources within the first billion years of the Universe, characterizing the physics driving the birth and evolution of the first stars, galaxies and black holes as they emerged from the aftermath of the Big Bang.

To do this, I use our foremost space-based (James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope) and ground-based (ESO Very Large Telescope, Keck/MOSFIRE, and soon the ESO Extremely Large Telescope) telescopes to pinpoint the timing of the birth of the first stars and galaxies, determine how quickly they built up their metal and dust contents, identify the seeds of their supermassive black holes, and understand which sources (re)ionized the Universe. I am also interested in machine-learning applications and how developing AI-led techniques can help us shed light at the observational frontier.

To answer these questions, I make use of my own observational programs (I am the (Co-)PI of the BoRG-JWST, OMEGA, and DAJE-JWST projects) and play a leading role in several major collaborations, as well as the science working group of the future MOSAIC instrument on the ESO-ELT.

If you are interested in my work, and/or interested in joining my group, please email me. I am also a regular and keen partaker in outreach events and science communication to the general public, and regularly give interviews to the press on findings and upcoming events. Should you like to get in touch, please feel free to contact me using any of the details highlighted below.