This award funds a search for, and study of, quasars at very high redshifts. Dr. Schmidt, the Principal Investigator, is one of the world leaders in such studies. He aims in this work to investigate the apparent decrease in the density of quasars at redshifts greater than three, an effect which he discovered in previous investigations. This may indicate that we are here observing the initial period of birth of the quasars, and probably that of galaxies as well.
