Papovich and Tran lead research programs in the areas of observational cosmology, the formation and evolution of the most distant galaxies, and the growth of large scale structures of galaxies. Their research includes the study of how galaxies assemble their stars and grow over cosmic time and as a function of environment. They combine observations from space-based facilities such as the Spitzer Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope with ground-based facilities such as the Magellan Telescopes and Keck Observatory to study galaxies over a wide range in redshift.