I am an Associate Professor working in the field of cosmology, the study of how the universe began and evolved into what we see today. I am also Director of Graduate Studies for the Department.
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 high energy theories to understanding how initial conditions for seeding structure are established in the early universe.
I am actively involved in two upcoming large scale structure surveys, Euclid and LSST , that will help us understand dark energy in more detail.
Some links:
CV
2012 Gruber Cosmology Prize for Charles Bennett and the WMAP team
2010 Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE) award announcement
2008 Cottrell Scholar's Profile
Contact:
612 Space Sciences Bldg
Department of Astronomy
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
607 254 4920
