About Me

I am Zihao Wu, a PhD student at Department of Astronomy, Harvard University. I primarily work with Professor Daniel J. Eisenstein. I am a member of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES), a flagship JWST survey conducting the deepest observations of the early universe.

My research focuses on the formation and evolution of the earliest galaxies at Cosmic Dawn. I lead a comprehensive study of JADES-GS-z14-1, a galaxy at redshift z = 13.9, based on over 250 hours of JWST observations across MIRI, NIRCam, and NIRSpec from the JADES program. JADES-GS-z14-1 is one of the most distant galaxies known and the faintest discovered at the redshift frontier. Our analysis finds that it has relatively weak metal emission lines, in contrast to the strong lines commonly observed in more luminous galaxies at z > 10. It also has an exceptionally compact size smaller than 50 pc. We suggest that this object has low metallicity (< 10% solar) and potential a high escape fraction of ionizing photons, offering critical insight into chemical enrichment and cosmic reionization in the early Universe. You can find the paper at arXiv:2507.22858.

I received my undergraduate degree from Peking University, advised by Luis C. Ho. I was born in Dazhu, a small city in China named after “large bamboos”. My educa-tional journey has taken me from Dazhu to Chongqing, Beijing, and now Boston.

Outside of research, I enjoy long-distance cycling and hiking. I have biked over 2,000 km, including a 900 km journey over three weeks. I also play acoustic guitar, jog along the Charles River, and read in a broad range of subjects.