Assistant Professor
Professor Strom uses some of the largest telescopes on the ground and in space to study how galaxies form and evolve. Specifically, she is interested in understanding the baryonic processes that determine galaxies’ varied formation histories within dark matter halos, including accretion from the cosmic web, winds and feedback from massive stars, and large-scale outflows. Strom is an expert in using deep rest-UV and rest-optical spectroscopy of star-forming galaxies across redshift to trace changes in their physical conditions and chemical abundances.
Light from 23 distant galaxies, identified with red rectangles in the Hubble Space Telescope image at the top, were combined to capture incredibly faint emission from eight different elements, which are labelled in the JWST spectrum at the bottom. Although scientists regularly find these elements on Earth, astronomers rarely, if ever, observe many of them
Aaron M. Geller, Northwestern, CIERA + IT-RCDS
On Friday, May 19, 2023, Northwestern Professor Allison Strom presented CIERA’s 2nd annual Astronomy Night Out to a crowd of 165 community members. Prof Strom’s lecture “Sequencing the DNA of Galaxies with JWST“, detailed how she and her team are using NASA’s Webb Space Telescope and its powerful infrared instruments to uncover the mysteries behind some of our
The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University engages in exciting, world-leading research in physics and astronomy and attracts a diverse, motivated community of scientists and teachers. The department offers graduate and undergraduate students an engaging learning environment and post-doctoral researchers fascinating research in areas like condensed matter physics, astrophysics and superconducting technologies. The
The images of space produced by the James Webb Telescope have captured the attention of the world, giving academic experts and everyday stargazers the clearest picture of the universe ever seen. “Even astronomers, like when we look at this, we had the same reaction as everyone else,” said Allison Strom, a Northwestern University professor of physics and
