Sean Johnson

Sean Johnson is an observational astronomer and primarily studies galaxies, supermassive black holes, and the surrounding gas supplies that fuel their growth. By combining datasets from space-based and large ground-based telescopes, he studies the physical conditions of the gas supplies that enable galaxies to continue forming stars, and identifies the chemical signatures of heavy elements that are produced in supernova explosions and deposited into intergalactic space by galactic-scale winds and galaxy interactions. He is co-PI of the Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) and leading wide-field ground-based follow-up for the MUSE Quasar Blind Emitter Survey (MUSEQuBES) which are increasing samples for CGM studies at z<1 by more than an order-of-magnitude by combining high quality HST UV spectra, deep integral field observations with MUSE, and wider field galaxy surveys with Magellan. Before joining U. Michigan, Sean was a Hubble and Carnegie-Princeton Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University where he volunteered regularly with the Prison Teaching Initiative. Prior to that, he was a graduate student at The University of Chicago.