UCSB Astrophysics
Portrait of Crystal Martin

§ 01People · Faculty

Crystal Martin

Professor

Crystal Martin is an observational astronomer who studies galaxy formation and evolution. Her group focuses on feedback from star formation. Supernova explosions inject energy, momentum and heavy elements into the surrounding gas and drive galactic winds. The group measures stars and gas in and around galaxies with spectroscopy and imaging, and models the data with hydrodynamics, radiative transfer and stellar evolution. The aims are to learn what regulates the cosmic star formation rate and how galaxies reionized the intergalactic medium.

Recent work combines Keck spectroscopy with JWST near-IR imaging and spectroscopy. A 2026 study mapped ionized bubbles around galaxies in a protocluster at redshift 7.

She received her PhD from the University of Arizona in 1996, held Hubble and Sherman Fairchild fellowships, and joined UCSB in 2002. She has received Packard and Sloan fellowships.

§ 02Fig. 1

Where in the universe

Range 1 Mly to 10 Gly

Crystal Martin, row of Fig. 1. The bar spans the light travel distances of the objects studied, 1 Mly to 10 Gly, on a logarithmic axis from the Solar System to the cosmic microwave background. Its two colors are the two research themes. Dotted lines mark landmarks. Fig. 1 with every faculty member

§ 03Publications

Recent papers

The newest papers with Crystal Martin as an author, from NASA ADS. Group members are in gold.

  1. 01Sep 2026arXiv
    CHAMPS: The COSMOS High-Redshift ALMA-MIRI Population Survey - A New Census of the Dusty Early UniverseA. L. Faisst, F. Martinez, J. S. Kartaltepe, M. Aravena, C. M. Casey, J. D. Silverman, S. Toft, E. Treister et al. (89 authors); UCSB: C. L. MartinGalaxiesCosmic dawn
    arXiv:2609.35992
  2. 02Sep 2026ApJ
    CLASSY. XV. Kinematics and Spatial Distributions of Outflows in Local Highly Star-forming GalaxiesM. S. Huberty, C. A. Carr, C. Scarlata, A. Henry, M. J. Hayes, X. Xu, T. Heckman, K. Z. Arellano-Córdova et al. (20 authors); UCSB: C. L. MartinGalaxiesCosmic dawn
    arXiv:2608.12482
  3. 03Aug 2026OJAp
    Dust in the Average Galaxy: Attenuation, Emission, and Opacity from 0<z<7C. M. Casey, H. B. Akins, A. J. Battisti, J. McKinney, E. Treister, J. A. Zavala, H. Algera, M. Aravena et al. (46 authors); UCSB: C. L. MartinGalaxiesCosmic dawn
    arXiv:2606.17270
  4. 04Jun 2026ApJ
    Resolving the Unresolved Galactic Winds in Multiphase Models. I. Methodology and ApplicationX. Xu, D. Fielding, T. Heckman, G. L. Bryan, A. Henry, K. Z. Arellano-Córdova, C. Carr, J. Chisholm et al. (15 authors); UCSB: C. L. MartinGalaxiesCosmic dawn
    arXiv:2605.01105
  5. 05May 2026ApJ
    Large-scale Structure in COSMOS-Web: Tracing Galaxy Evolution in the Cosmic Web up to z ∼ 7 with the Largest JWST SurveyH. Hatamnia, B. Mobasher, S. Taamoli, J. S. Kartaltepe, C. M. Casey, H. B. Akins, M. Brinch, N. Chartab et al. (34 authors); UCSB: C. L. MartinGalaxiesCosmic dawn
    arXiv:2511.10727
  6. 06May 2026MNRAS
    Modelling emission-line surface brightness in a multiphase galactic wind: an O VI case studyZ. Chen, Z. Peng, K. H. R. Rubin, T. M. Heckman, M. J. Hayes, Y. Faerman, C. L. Martin, S. P. Oh et al. (9 authors)GalaxiesCosmic dawn
    arXiv:2510.02443
  7. 07Apr 2026Nature Astronomy
    An ultra-high-resolution map of (dark) matterD. Scognamiglio, G. Leroy, D. Harvey, R. Massey, J. Rhodes, H. B. Akins, M. Brinch, E. Berman et al. (41 authors); UCSB: C. M. Casey, C. L. MartinGalaxiesCosmic dawn
    arXiv:2601.17239
  8. 08Apr 2026ApJ
    When Stars Mimic Monsters: Spectral Evidence for an η Carinae−like Giant Eruption in SBS 0335−052 EZ. Peng, C. L. Martin, J. Huang, N. Z. Prusinski, C. Huang, Z. Zhuang, Y. Li, T. L. S. Wong et al. (10 authors); UCSB: J. F. HennawiGalaxiesCosmic dawn
    arXiv:2508.03912
  9. 09Mar 2026arXiv
    The Prevalence of Turbulence-Regulated Multiphase Galactic Winds in Star-Forming GalaxiesZ. Li, T. Heckman, M. Gronke, X. Xu, A. Henry, E. Schneider, M. Abruzzo, D. Berg et al. (11 authors); UCSB: C. MartinGalaxiesCosmic dawn
    arXiv:2603.06568
  10. 10Mar 2026arXiv
    Kinematically Coherent Multiphase Galactic Winds in Star-Forming Galaxies Revealed by Unified Radiative Transfer Modeling of UV Emission and Absorption LinesZ. Li, T. Heckman, M. Gronke, X. Xu, A. Henry, E. Schneider, M. Abruzzo, D. Berg et al. (11 authors); UCSB: C. MartinGalaxiesCosmic dawn
    arXiv:2603.06546

All papers by Crystal Martin

Everyone in the group