Zoom Recording Passcode: 6AYA^E!#

The first billion years after the Big Bang mark the last major uncharted epoch of the Universe when the first galaxies emerged to transform the cosmos. They illuminated the invisible scaffolding of dark matter, they ionized the intergalactic reservoirs of hydrogen, and they synthesized the elements that would one day seed life on Earth. My research group will finally reveal these enigmatic sources and the great transformations they wrought on the universe. In this talk I will present early steps in this direction through experiments I am leading with NASA's flagship James Webb Space Telescope. First, I will discuss a new class of surprisingly luminous early galaxies at the current redshift frontier (z~10-14; <400 million years after the Big Bang), the challenges they pose for theoretical models, and the new path they present to push to previously unimaginable epochs of z~15-20 -- the era of very first star-formation. Next, as a case study of the ``unknown unknowns" awaiting discovery in the early Universe, I will discuss the surprisingly abundant population of "Little Red Dots" that are driving a revolution in our understanding of the origins of supermassive black holes. Finally, I will describe novel strategies exploiting gravitational lensing to seek pristine metal-free Pop III stars, and to hone in on the elusive protagonists of cosmic reionization, the last large-scale process that touched almost every baryon in the universe. Throughout, I will outline how Stanford's unique strengths coupled with new capaibilities offered by JWST, Roman, and the ELTs promise a once-in-a-generation expansion of the astrophysical frontier to the brink of the Big Bang.