Quasars are the most luminous objects in the universe and can be studied at distances well over 10 billion light years.
HII regions are places where stars are now being born in our own galaxy.
Ferland has been investigating the nearest HII region, the Orion Nebula, to understand star birth and the formation of the new chemical elements there. By combining work on the distant quasars with the nearby HII regions, he is documenting the creation and evolution of the material humans are made of, from soon after the birth of the universe to our current time.