Dr. Jinyi Yang

Biography

Jinyi Yang is an observational astronomer who primarily studies high-redshift active galactic nuclei (AGN) and quasars, supermassive black holes (SMBHs), black hole host galaxies, and cosmic reionization. She leads wide-field surveys of distant quasars, yielding the largest sample of luminous reionization-era quasars at redshifts of around 6.5 to 7.6, with discoveries of quasars at redshifts greater than 7.5. Yang has spearheaded optical and near-infrared spectroscopic follow-up surveys of luminous quasars using world-class telescopes such as Keck, VLT, Magellan, Gemini, MMT, and LBT. Her work includes a study on the early growth of SMBHs and the evolution of the intergalactic medium (IGM) during the reionization epoch using comprehensive datasets. Currently, she focuses on utilizing the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to conduct follow-up studies on luminous quasars at redshift 7 and how they relate to the IGM evolution. Yang is a principal investigator and co-principal investigator on several JWST programs aimed at in-depth follow-up on the largest sample of luminous z~7 quasars. She also plays a key role in high-redshift quasar surveys using new generation facilities and is a member of various scientific collaborations including the Euclid Consortium and the LSST AGN Science Collaboration.

Research Interests