Star-forming galaxies

Galaxies undergo vigorous bursts of star formation that quickly build up stellar mass, and may, through violent outflows, prevent future star formation. Dr. Rigby investigates the evolution of star formation in galaxies through cosmic time, using multiwavelength spectroscopy and photometry.

Gravitational Lensing

Rare gravitational lenses act like "nature's telescopes", magnifying the background universe by factors of up to 100x, enabling Dr. Rigby and collaborators to peer inside normal galaxies at the epoch of galaxy assembly.

Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN)

Much of the growth of supermassive black holes is hidden from us, due to large columns of obscuring gas and dust. Dr. Rigby studies these obscured active galactic nuclei, with a focus on their multiwavelength properties, and how to identify the subset that are highly obscured.

Future telescopes

Rigby supports the development of future NASA mission concepts. Rigby serves on the Science, Technology, Architecture Review Team (START) for the Habitable Worlds Observatory. Rigby served on the Science & Technology Definition Team (STDT) for NASA's mission concept of a Large UV/Optical/Infrared Telescope (LUVOIR).

Astrophysicist

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center - Greenbelt, MD

September 2010 - Present

Spitzer Fellow and Carnegie Fellow

The Carnegie Observatories - Pasadena, CA

September 2006 - August 2010

NSF Graduate Research Fellow

The University of Arizona - Tucson, AZ

September 2000 - June 2003