Nadia Zakamska

Title:  Obscured Quasars

Abstract:  Quasars -- accreting supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies -- are among the most powerful objects in the Universe and are now thought to play a key role in galaxy evolution.  Despite their extreme luminosity, the majority of all quasars have eluded detection through conventional methods until recently. In these objects, the active regions are embedded in clouds of gas and dust, making them faint at optical, ultraviolet and X-ray frequencies, quite unlike 'normal' quasars that are bright at these wavelengths.  I will present a detailed study of such obscured quasars, describe our current work on the these objects' host galaxies and review the current status of quasar research from multi-wavelength surveys.