Robert Simcoe, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Robert Simcoe's website and 2016-2017 Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study

Dr. Simcoe specializes in observational astrophysics, with particular emphasis on the chemistry of galaxies and intergalactic matter in the early universe. He and his colleagues have developed a number of optical tools that serve the most advanced astronomical investigations of the universe.

The earliest stars were very different from subsequent stellar generations. In his SftPublic appearance on January 24, 2017 Dr. Simcoe discussed ** Reconstructing the Evolution of Stars**. He explained how optical/infrared astronomy identifies the early stars of billions of years ago --the oldest that can be observed so far, and how scientists build special instruments to make these deep-space probes. He showed how astronomers "read" spectroscopy data as well.

articles by Robert Simcoe for general readers

• Cosmic Dawn: Hunting for the First Stars in the Universe
• The Cosmic Web (American Scientist, 2016)