Steward Observatory IR Group

The Steward Observatory Infrared Group reflects 60 years of leadership, starting under Frank Low in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, and transiting to leadership under George and Marcia Rieke. During that time, the group has: (1) invented methods to optimize groundbased telescopes for infrared performance; (2) played a major role in the development of the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS); (3) supported the development of NICMOS, an infrared instrument for HST; (4) led the construction of the Multi-band Infrared Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS); (5) supported the development of the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) for JWST; and (6) as Principal Investigator, supervised construction of the Near-Infrared camera for JWST. The current science interests of the group include: (1) the very early Universe as revealed primarily by NIRCam identification of very high redshift galaxies; (2) the evolution of active galactic nuclei and their host galaxies from the early Universe to the present; and (3) studying planetary debris disks around nearby stars as a way to search for low mass planets and to probe the general behavior of systems of smaller bodies (e.g., like asteroid belts).