Abstract：Baryons play a fundamental role in shaping the evolution of the Universe. Gas accretion fuels the formation of stars and the growth of supermassive black holes, while energetic feedback from young stars and AGNs redistributes baryons across the interstellar, circumgalactic, and intergalactic media (ISM/CGM/IGM). This cosmic baryon cycle governs key astrophysical processes, including star formation efficiency, chemical enrichment, and the thermal and kinematic properties of gas. Over the past decade, observations using state-of-the-art instruments have significantly advanced our ability to characterize these gas flows. In this talk, I will present insights from some recent large-scale surveys conducted with Keck, Herschel, and SOFIA, offering a comprehensive view of the baryon cycle in star-forming galaxies. These surveys provide an unprecedented dataset—spanning from the epoch of reionization to the present-day universe and probing scales from Mpc-scale IGM dynamics to sub-pc-scale temperature fluctuations in the ISM. The findings challenge some conventional understandings of galaxy formation, revealing unexpected properties of gas distribution and kinematics.
Bio：Dr. Yuguang Chen is a Research Assistant Professor and observational astronomer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on the impact of the baryon cycle on galaxy evolution, with a particular emphasis on characterizing diffuse gas using high-sensitivity optical integral field spectroscopy, such as with the Keck Cosmic Web Imager. Before joining CUHK, he earned his PhD from the California Institute of Technology and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Davis.