Dominik A. Riechers' research combines astronomical data sets from many observatories on Earth and in space with physical modeling to better understand the initial conditions for star formation in galaxies in the early universe, and their evolution with cosmic time. These studies place particular emphasis on the physical and chemical properties of the (molecular) gas out of which stars and circumstellar environments (the birth sites of planets) form. Studies of the molecular gas content of galaxies throughout cosmic times offer crucial insight into the initial conditions for active star formation and the buildup of stellar mass (the result of star formation) at different cosmic epochs, providing a means to understand the origins of the universe as we see it at present day. It thus is of the utmost importance to develop a detailed understanding of the gas properties of galaxies back to the earliest cosmic epochs (lookback times of almost 13 billion years, when the infant universe had only 5% of its current age), and to trace their general evolution as a function of age of the universe.