I am an Associate Professor of Astrophysics at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I love engaging with my students in my astronomy, astrophysics, and physics courses and helping them understand the big connections between the things and beings in our universe. My research focuses on observational cosmology and galaxy evolution. In addition to my duties as a researcher and scholar, I am actively engaged in school and community projects that promote science. More information about my work at my institution is here.

One of the biggest mysteries in our cosmos revolves around nature of dark matter. This material can be measured easily, but it is totally invisible to the eye and to modern detectors. Many galaxies contain much more dark matter than stars, planets, and other known material. My research explores how dark matter and other physical properties are expressed in the shapes of galaxies and how these galaxy morphologies have evolved as the universe has aged.

Bizyaev, D. V., Kautsch, S. J., Sotnikova, N. Y., Reshetnikov, V. P., & Mosenkov, A. V. 2017, Very Thin Disc Galaxies in the SDSS Catalogue of Edge-On Galaxies, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 465, 3784

Kautsch, S. J., Vazquez, R., Phung, C., VanHilst, M., Castro, V. H., & Bizyaev, D. 2016, Galaxy Classification: Citizen Scientists versus Experts, American Astronomical Society, 227, 342.39

Ringworld by Larry Niven