A Toronto researcher studied the oldest galaxies in the Universe

Jacqueline Antwi-Danso remembers a book from her high school library that describes how stars are born and how the biggest stars die in giant explosions called supernovae.

“The book explained that there are objects in space that emit so much energy that we can see them, study them, and precisely observe their physical properties,” says Antwi-Danso, who credits her parents for fostering her interest in education and learning. While growing up in Ghana. “It just blew my mind.”

Today, Antwi-Danso is the David A. David Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Dunlap is an NSERC Banting postdoctoral fellow. His work focuses on the study of massive galaxies that formed “when the universe was still a baby.”

She is also active in supporting Black, Latino, and Indigenous women interested in careers in science.

He recently spoke to U of T's Chris Sasaki about his career, research and goals.

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Was there a milestone on your journey to becoming an astronomer?

After high school, my plan was to stay in Ghana and take a year to decide if I wanted to do something in science at the university level or go elsewhere.

Then I got a chance. The American Embassy in Accra had a program for Ghanaian high school students interested in studying in the United States. He provided mentoring on how to get into schools in the US, how to apply to a good college, and how to choose courses. They also help you think about what you want to do in your career.

It was a huge turning point in my life when I was selected to participate in the program. So I learned about opportunities outside of Ghana and realized that if I was going to study astronomy, I would have to leave because we don't have astronomy at the college level. So I decided to study astronomy at Texas Christian University.

What questions are you trying to answer as an astronomer?

I study massive galaxies in the very distant universe—some of the earliest structures that formed after the Big Bang, about 14 billion years ago. We're trying to understand why these galaxies formed the way they did and why they got so big so quickly. We are finding them earlier and earlier, when the Universe is only four percent of its current age.

This contradicts our understanding of the hierarchical formation of large structures – where massive galaxies like our own Milky Way galaxy formed from the merger of galaxies formed from stars, which in turn formed from clouds of gas and dust.

It took billions of years for our galaxy to reach its current stellar mass. These distant, massive galaxies had only a fraction of the time to go through this process, so we don't know how they formed so quickly. So one of two things is happening: either something is wrong with our observations or we need to revise our current models. This is a big problem I'm working on and I'm looking for a summer undergraduate student to work on this project.

You're working to support Black, Native, and Latino women in science. Can you tell us more about that?

The League of Underrepresented Astronomers (LUMA) is a mentoring organization for women in astronomy, physics, and the planetary sciences, founded in 2015 by Catherine Espaillat, director of Boston University's Institute for Astrophysical Sciences. She started LUMA because she felt isolated as a Dominican American undergraduate.

In his field, there were not many people who were similar to him and had the same background. So he created LUMA as a community of people with similar experiences who could support each other. I joined because I realized there weren't many people like me in my field. African astronomers were even fewer. Like Catherine, I wanted a place where we could come together as a community and support each other.

Do you have any plans to do the same thing in Canada?

I want to continue this work, so I've been trying to learn and understand what the Canadian scientific landscape looks like. I think the challenge in Canada is similar to the one facing LUMA in the US – there are very few Black, Indigenous or Latino women in science in both countries. So yes, I would like to do a similar job here. I still don't know what it looks like.

And what about in Ghana?

One thing I have in mind is trying to create some sort of pipeline for students in Ghana who are interested in astronomy and want to study in the US or Canada. Of course there are challenges, but I'm talking to people who have been involved in similar projects and have found solutions to these challenges. For example, this could mean helping students interested in physics and students who are further along in their studies by mentoring them. I hope there are several ways to make this work.

How about NSERC Banting Scholarship?

I am very grateful and humbled to receive it. For me, this is an exciting opportunity to work independently on my research, especially with everyone at U of T from the Dunlap Institute (for Astronomy and Astrophysics), the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, CITA (Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics). and Department of Statistical Sciences. I feel like U of T is the perfect place for me because I'm combining astronomy with statistics and cosmological modeling to understand really big, distant galaxies. I'm having the time of my life and can't wait to see what the next few months bring.