Speaker: Nickolay Y. Gnedin, University of Chicago
Abstract: In the last decade, the study of cosmic reionization progressed from an almost purely theoretical field to one led by data – thanks to the Hubble Frontier Fields program and the breakthrough in discovering high redshift quasars. However, the game has just begun – with the quality of JWST observations exceeding all expectations and 30-meter class telescopes coming online around the end of this decade, the volume of observational data will increase some 100-fold. I will give an overview of what breakthroughs we can expect as this final frontier is being settled and will describe how outnumbered and underfunded theorists try to keep abreast with the mind-blowing observational progress.