TALK ABSTRACT:
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I will summarize a recent investigation into the relation between the 
evolution of black holes and galaxies based on SDSS optical spectra of
over 200,000 galaxies. 

I will describe the methodology we use to measure the basic properties
of these galaxies and of the active nuclei (accreting black holes) present
in many of them. We find that galaxies exhibit a remarkably simple
bimodal behavior in their ages and structure as a function of their
mass. Optically-powerful active nuclei (Seyfert nuclei) inhabit those 
unusual galaxies that are both relatively massive and young. 

Performing a volume average over the SDSS sample, I will show that the
population of black holes with masses less than 100 million M_sun is growing
rapidly at the current epoch. The population of more massive black holes
("dead quasars") is quiescent, with low-level activity traced by low-power
radio sources.

For massive galaxies as-a-whole, the volume averaged ratio of the rates 
of star formation to black hole accretion in the present universe is 
of-order a thousand (similar to the ratio of stellar and black hole
mass in galaxy bulges today). The processes that established this ratio
in the fossil record are still be at work today, albeit preferentially
in less massive black holes and bulges.