Sean Johnson is an observational astronomer and primarily studies galaxies, supermassive black holes, and the surrounding gas supplies that fule their growth. By combining datasets from space-based and large ground-based telescopes, he studies the physical conditions of the gas supplies that enable galaxies to continue forming stars, as well as identifies the chemical signatures of heavy elements that are produced in supernova explosions and deposited into intergalactic space by calactic-scale winds and galaxy interactions. Before joining U. Michigan, Sean was a Hubble and Carnegie-Princeton Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University where he volunteered regularly with the Prison Teaching Initiative. Prior to that, he was a graduate student at The University of Chicago.