Title: Missing Giants: The First Massive Galaxies Are Dust-Obscured

Abstract: Half of all cosmic starlight is absorbed and reprocessed by dust, meaning that the widely-accepted cosmic history generated by visible-light telescopes is incomplete. The consequences of our biases are apparent in our most modern cosmological simulations: they struggle to produce sufficient populations of massive galaxies that match observations of the first 2 Gyr of the Universe. These giants likely underwent rapid, violent, and bursty phases of star formation in order to reach their extreme masses so early on. Such rapid stellar growth produces an overabundance of dust that obscures starlight, rendering the galaxies near-invisible at UV/optical wavelengths. In this work, I use empirical data to create a numerical model that predicts the true massive dust-obscured galaxy population across cosmic time. I'll detail the impact of this model on our understanding of massive galaxy formation and cosmic stellar mass assembly, and briefly review how current and upcoming surveys with ALMA and JWST will play a key role in this endeavor.