Title: The History of Cosmic Ecosystems: Hidden Drivers of Galaxy Evolution

Abstract: In the last two decades, our understanding of how galaxies form and evolved have matured dramatically. The latest numerical simulations successfully reproduce both the stellar content of galaxies and their large scale statistical properties. However, these models still fail to match the observed properties of the diffuse gas, which span hundreds of kiloparsecs beyond the visible stellar disks of the galaxies. Understanding the complex physical processes that regulate this “cosmic ecosystem” is a crucial next step towards creating a comprehensive model of galaxy evolution. In this talk,  I will highlight some of our recent efforts in characterizing this hidden cosmic ecosystem from present day to early history of the Universe. I will show how innovative techniques of using gravitational lensing as a natural telescope allows one to study the small scale properties of these cosmic ecosystems. Finally I will show how new observations from JWST are revolutionizing our understanding of early galaxy growth, when the Universe was less than a billion years old.  These observations  provide empirical bedrocks to identify the dominant mechanisms that govern galaxy evolution. 

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