17 May 2019

DAWN at COSMOS 2019

DAWN Center Director Sune Toft speaking on the opening day of the 2019 COSMOS meeting

This week The Cosmic Dawn Center has been participating in the COSMOS meeting in New York City.

The Cosmological Evolution Survey (COSMOS) is an astronomical survey designed to probe the formation and evolution of galaxies as a function of cosmic time (redshift) and large-scale structure environment. The COSMOS survey involves almost 100 scientists in a dozen countries.

Talks were given by six DAWN members during the four-day meet

  • John R. Weaver: “Photometry and Redshifts for COSMOS2019”
  • Sune Toft: “The Cosmic Dawn Survey”
  • Peter Capak: “Developing a Standard Model of Galaxies”
  • Kate Whitaker: “The REQUIEM Survey: REsolving QUIEscent Magnified Galaxies”
  • Charles Steinhardt: “Thermal Regulation and Star Formation”
  • Vasily Kokorev: “In Search of Molecular Hydrogen, Constraining the Gas Content of Star Forming Galaxies”
DAWN Phd Student John Weaver speaking at COSMOS 2019

Also present at the meeting were Guarn Elizabeth Nissen and Nanna Langer Jensen.

The team has learned a lot and luckily also got a bit of time to explore New York City!

DAWN Phd Student Vasily Kokorev exploring Central Park ahead of giving his COSMOS talk


The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) has officially changed hands this week, the second major leadership hand-off since the survey began in 2003. Caitlin Casey, Jeyhan Kartaltepe, and Vernesa Smolčić have taken over as the project's leaders as the collaboration enters its fifteenth year.

Peter Capak has led the COSMOS team for the past nine years with the help of Simon Lilly. "Since taking over leadership of COSMOS in 2010 we have replaced almost every data set we started with including major programs on Chandra, J-VLA, Keck, Spitzer, Subaru, and the VLT,” Capak shared. “In the coming years COSMOS science will likely center around observations with ALMA, J-VLA, and JWST. Casey, Kartaltepe and Smolčić are ideally placed to lead the science in these areas."

Capak is stepping aside due to his significant roles in future space missions, including Euclid, WFIRST, and SPHEREx. Nick Scoville, the founder and first leader of COSMOS, handed over the reins to Capak in 2010.