By studying the atmospheres of planets beyond our solar system, also known as an “exoplanets,” my goal is to gain a deeper understanding of planetary formation, physics, chemistry and ultimately, habitability. Using ground and space-based telescopes, my research group is interested in detecting and characterizing these worlds and eventually identifying other Earth-like planets.
We explore the Universe using the power of statistical analyses applied to large astronomical datasets. Our group pioneers techniques to uncover new astrophysical phenomena from observations of the sky across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Our interests range from stars in the Milky Way to distant galaxies across the Universe.
Our research group combines surface science experiments and radio astronomy to explore the chemistry that regulates the formation efficiencies and nascent compositions of planets, including their surface abundances of water and organics, i.e. their chemical habitability. Thanks to the arrival of new generation of microwave telescopes, especially ALMA, the chemistry in disks around young stars, … Continued
I study the formation and evolution of galaxies across cosmic time. My research group is focused on understanding the connection between galaxies and dark matter, using models to determine the stellar content of galaxies, and decoding the assembly of the Milky Way galaxy via N-body simulations and analysis of large datasets.
My group focuses on a range of questions related to the formation and evolution of galaxies, with a particular emphasis on the relation between dark and normal matter.
I am interested in early universe cosmology, particle astrophysics, and cosmology as a probe of fundamental physics. Much of my work centers on understanding the clues about the earliest moments of our universe encoded in the Cosmic Microwave Background, the faint glow of radiation generated by the Big Bang, and in the distribution of matter … Continued
I develop theories of the early universe, making a number of successful predictions within the standard dark energy/dark matter cosmology. My group pioneered investigations of theoretical scenarios including cosmic strings, inflationary “bubble” universes and cyclic models. We disproved the Hartle-Hawking proposal for inflationary universes. Additionally, we are developing an alternative, the CPT-invariant universe, which provides … Continued
My research has ranged from cosmology to the physics of intelligence, and is currently focused at the interface between physics, AI and neuroscience.
The standard cosmological model successfully reproduces the properties of the universe on supergalactic scales. However it is unclear whether it can reproduce the detailed properties of galaxies themselves, from their dark matter halos and subhalos, to their stellar populations, to the supermassive black holes found at the centers. Much theoretical work has been devoted to … Continued
Throughout history, observational studies of dying stars and their catastrophic demise in supernova explosions have focused almost entirely on optical data. Despite these traditional studies (6000 supernovae discovered to date) many critical questions remain unanswered, including what transpires in the final stages of stellar life, the basic explosion physics, and which stars give birth to … Continued