Jason Young is a research scientist at the SETI Institute leading a multi-instrument campaign to study the physical conditions that suspend star formation in diffuse (low surface brightness) spiral galaxies. He earned his PhD at Penn State, where he conducted research on galaxy evolution across different environments, and completed postdoctoral work at UMass Amherst focusing on JWST observations of dusty star-forming galaxies.

Jason has taught at Mount Holyoke, Amherst, and Williams Colleges, with courses ranging from stellar structure to astrobiology. He is active in the American Astronomical Society, and has served on the AAS Education Award and Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize Committees.

His current project at SETI ties together data from the Swift, AstroSat, and Spitzer space telescopes, radio HI observations with the VLA, and over a hundred nights of ultra-deep ground-based IFU data. This comprehensive study of diffuse spirals aims to shed light on the way that galaxies self-regulate the formation of stars and the buildup of heavy elements, and the relationship between dark and baryonic matter.

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