Derek Fox

Title: Bursts of Light from the Cosmic Dawn

Abstract: I will discuss what we have learned over the past seven years, via
burst and afterglow detections of the Swift satellite and energetic
follow-up efforts by observers around the globe, about gamma-ray
bursts from the "Cosmic Dawn" prior to the end of the cosmic
reionization (redshifts z>6). Bursts from these redshifts are not only
occasionally Guinness Record-worthy; they also serve as powerful
probes of high-redshift star formation, the demographics of the very
first galaxies, and the evolving reionization of the high-redshift
intergalactic medium. I will address the current status of
high-redshift burst studies and discuss the prospects for progress in
the near future with Swift and, beyond that, with possible future
missions