Beus Center for Cosmic Foundations
Discovering Our Cosmic Origins
The story of our cosmic origins begins with the birth of the first stars and galaxies over 13 billion years ago, at the dawn of cosmic history. Over time, the explosive deaths of successive generations of stars seeded galaxies with elements, creating cosmic ecosystems of stellar birth, death, and gas recycling, and leading to a global peak and decline of star formation in the Universe. These processes led to galaxies like our Milky Way that contain the elements and conditions needed for life.
The Beus Center for Cosmic Foundation brings together observational and theoretical astrophysicists, educators, instrument builders, and engineers to advance our knowledge of the formation and evolution of stars and galaxies. Our work uses the most advanced astronomical observatories around the world and in space to explore pivotal periods in cosmic history. It builds on long-standing strengths of ASU scientists in astronomical research on stellar modeling, galactic environments, and cosmology.
Founded in 2022 through a generous gift by philanthropists Leo and Annette Beus, the Center aims to accelerate research advances in the foundational role of the first stars and early galaxies and the complex processes they unleashed throughout cosmic time. Through the Center, we seek to foster and support an inclusive community of early-career scientists who will lead the next great discoveries in astrophysics that help humanity to better understand our place in the cosmos.
Beus Prize Fellowship
The application period has now closed for the inaugural Beus Prize Fellowship. We anticipate announcing the outcome in early 2023. The fellowship will be offered annually for early-career postdoctoral scientists to join our community, working with ASU researchers and our international collaborators. Fellowship details are available on the Beus Prize Fellowship webpage.
Meet the team
Judd Bowman, Director and Beus Chair of Cosmology
Judd Bowman is a professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration. Bowman is recognized for his team’s pioneering EDGES instrument and development of radio telescopes opening new views of the birth of stars. Bowman operates the Low-frequency Cosmology (LoCo) Lab with Assistant Professor Danny Jacobs.
Allison Noble, Beus Professor of Galaxy Evolution
Allison Noble is an assistant professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration. Noble is an observational astronomer whose research is aimed at studying galaxy evolution and formation through the lens of environment, mass, and time. In particular, she focuses on the most extreme end of these parameters: The dense regions of galaxy clusters, the most massive galaxies in the Universe, and the cosmic “high noon” of star formation.
Affiliated Faculty and Researchers
 Sanchayeeta Borthakur |
 Sean Bryan |
 Nathaniel Butler |
 Seth Cohen |
 Chris Groppi |
 Danny Jacobs |
 Rolf Jansen |
 Tracee Jamison-Hooks |
 Karen Knierman |
 Matthew Kolopanis |
 Phil Mauskopf |
 Steven Murray |
 Titu Samson |
 Evan Scannapieco |
 Molly Simon |
 Sumner Starrfield |
 Frank Timmes |
 Alex Van Engelen |
 Rogier Windhorst |
 Patrick Young |
Upcoming events
As we ramp up over the coming year, watch here for announcements of workshops and special seminars hosted by the Center.
Contact Us
For more information please contact Judd Bowman.
In The News
Webb telescope PEARLS project unveils exquisite views of distant galaxies
For decades, the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes have provided us with spectacular images of galaxies. This all changed when the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched in December 2021 and successfully completed commissioning during the first half of 2022. For astronomers, the universe, as we had seen it, is now revealed in a new way never imagined by the telescopes's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument. Read more
ASU mourns loss of Leo Beus, attorney and philanthropist
Leo Beus’ generosity reached almost every corner of Arizona State University. With his wife, Annette, Beus for many years directed philanthropic support to a wide range of causes and programs at ASU with one unifying motive: to improve the lives of others. Read more
Webb images reveal interstellar discovery
Arizona State University astronomers are sharing one of their first and most beautiful NASA James Webb Space Telescope images of a galaxy pair at a distance of about 700 million light-years away from us.
Using Webb’s new images and data, the scientists were able to trace the light that was emitted by the bright white elliptical galaxy through the winding spiral galaxy in front of it, allowing astronomers to identify the effects of interstellar dust in the spiral galaxy. Read more
ASU Assistant Profesor Daniel Jacobs selected for prestigious NSF CAREER award
The NSF CAREER program is a foundation-wide activity that offers awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department. Read more
Record broken: Hubble Space Telescope spots farthest star ever seen
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has established an extraordinary new benchmark: detecting the light of a star that existed within the first billion years after the universe's birth in the Big Bang — the farthest individual star ever seen to date. Read more or watch a video about this discovery.
ASU astronomer finds star fuel surrounding galaxies
Most galaxies, including our own, grow by accumulating new material and turning them into stars — that much is known. What has been unknown is where that new material comes from and how it flows into galaxies to create stars. Read more
New center launches with focus on early stars and galaxies
A new center at Arizona State University aims to help us better understand the history of early stars, galaxies and black holes to enhance our knowledge of the universe. The Beus Center for Cosmic Foundations was founded in the School of Earth and Space Exploration through a generous gift by philanthropists Leo and Annette Beus. Read more
ASU prepares for launch of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest, most powerful and complex space telescope ever built. It is expected to launch from the European Spaceport located near Kourou, French Guiana, no earlier than Saturday, Dec. 25, at 5:20 a.m. Mountain Time on the Ariane 5 rocket. Its destination is an orbit around the Sun-Earth second Lagrange point. Read more
Dusting for fingerprints of the first stars in the universe
Long ago, about 400,000 years after the beginning of the universe —the Big Bang — the universe was dark. There were no stars or galaxies, and the universe was filled primarily with neutral hydrogen gas.
Then, for the next 50 million-100 million years, gravity slowly pulled the densest regions of gas together until they collapsed in some places to form the first stars. Read more
ASU’s ‘starbirth’ research a top 10 ‘Breakthrough of the Year’
A key discovery on the birth of stars and unexpected conditions in the early universe by Arizona State University cosmologist Judd Bowman and his research team has been chosen by the U.K.-based publication Physics World as one of its top 10 "Breakthroughs of the Year." Read more