Amy Lien's research interest focuses on understanding how the universe begins and evolves through the most energetic astrophysical explosions: gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, and merging neutron stars and black holes.
Lien's main research utilizes gamma-ray bursts detected by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a multi-wavelength space telescope dedicated to studying gamma-ray bursts and the transient sky. Gamma-ray bursts are seen from within our neighborhood of galaxies to the early universe when the first stars were expected to form. She uses GRBs to explore the history of the universe, and study how nature can form these energetic bursts from either the collapse of massive stars, or merging of compact objects like neutron stars and black holes (e.g., Lien et al. 2014, Lien et al. 2016, Klingler & Lien et al. 2021).