Prof. Urry’s scientific research focuses on active galaxies, which host accreting supermassive black holes in their centers. Her group uses telescopes in space and on the ground, to conduct multi-wavelength surveys, measure line widths from which black hole masses can be derived, and analyze the dominant radiation components. To interpret these data, Urry and her collaborators develop models for the evolution of black hole growth over cosmic time. In recent years, the group has developed machine learning techniques to study galaxy properties and to characterize spectral energy distributions. Some of this work is done with collaborators around the world.