I'm a scientific staff member (Forschungsgruppenleiter) at the Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (MPA), Garching (near Munich), Germany. I am interested in all aspects of cosmology, though I have also worked on weak gravitational lensing and cosmic ray physics.
My research in cosmology deals with the question of what our Universe as a whole is made of, as well as its history and evolution. Two of the most pressing mysteries in cosmology are the nature of dark matter and dark energy, which appear to make up 96% of the Universe's current energy budget. We also want to unravel how the initial, small seed perturbations were generated in the primeval universe, which form the ultimate origin of all structure in the universe.
Having grown up in Germany and the US, I did my undergraduate at Humboldt University, Berlin, graduating with a (Diplom) thesis on cosmic gamma rays. I then moved to Chicago for graduate school. You can find my CV here.
My group is currently funded by the Excellence cluster Origins, as well as institute funding.
PhD student (2020-). EFT-based BAO reconstruction.
Postdoc (2021-). Interferometric imaging; EFT-based forward models in large-scale structure.
PhD student (2021-). Simulation-based inference.
PhD student (2023-). Dark matter.
PhD student (2023-). Simulation-based cosmology inference.
MSc student TUM (2023-2024). Posterior of initial conditions in field-level inferences.
MSc student LMU (2023-2024). EFT of LSS.
Phd Student (2014-2018). Modified gravity, relativistic aspects of cosmology. Now at Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge.
PhD student (2014-2018). Bias of dark matter halos, N-body simulations. Now at Physics Department, University of Milan.
Postdoc (2016-2018). Analysis of large data sets from CMB (Planck) and large-scale structure. Now at res mechanica.
Postdoc (2015-2020). N-body and hydro simulations of separate universes and modified gravity, covariance of cosmological power spectra, raytracing. Now at Excellence Cluster ORIGINS (TUM/LMU Munich).
Postdoc (2017-2020). CMB, large-scale structure and inflation. Now faculty at Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Zagreb.
PhD student (2016-2020); Postdoc (2020-2021). Kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and Bayesian inference from forward modeling using novel likelihood approaches. Now at LCTP, University of Michigan.
Fulbright fellow (2021-2022). Dark energy constraints.Now PhD student at Columbia University, New York.
PhD student (2020-2023), postdoc (2023). Bayesian inference in cosmology. Now at DeepL.
Postdoc (2019-2023). Large-scale structure, dark energy, simulations.Now project assistant professor at Kavli IPMU, University of Tokyo.
In case you are interested in joining my group as a student or postdoc, please see the information below.
My students are members of the IMPRS (International Max Planck Research School on Astrophysics) at the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich. The online application can be found here (deadline: November 1 of each year).
MPA has openings for MPA fellowship positions which are announced on the AAS job register in October of every year. Applications to the MPA positions will also be considered for independently funded postdoc positions in my group.
Due to administrative and logistical hurdles, I do not accept internships from students who are not local (in the Munich/Garching area or nearby). For more explanation, see here.
The second edition of Modern Cosmology has appeared in June 2020. See here. The third edition will appear in April 2025!