Rachel Bean

I am an Assistant Professor working in the field of cosmology, the study of how the universe began and evolved into what we see today. My research , and that of the students working with me, focuses on cosmological theories and how we can constrain them using observations such as the cosmic microwave background "CMB" (radiation emitted at the earliest, directly-observable time in the universe's history), and large scale structure data (galaxies and clusters of galaxies).

My current research includes work to establish the nature of dark energy, the mysterious quantity responsible for the accelerated expansion of the universe, and dark matter, and how can we use observations to distinguish between competing theories. I'm also interested in the application of string theory to understanding how initial conditions for seeding structure are established in the early universe.

My CV.

Videos

Check out my online lecture, "The Puzzling Life of the Universe", giving an introduction to cosmology for non-scientists, as part of the Cornell Adult University Cybertower.

Here is a webcast of a talk I gave on dark energy at the Space Telescope Institute Spring Symposium in May 2008 (it uses Real Player).

Contact:

Rachel Bean
612 Space Sciences Bldg
Department of Astronomy
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
607 254 4920