Staff at DAWN

Sune Toft

Center Director | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen}

I am a professor of Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics at the Niels Bohr Institute. I received my BSc (1998), MSc (2000) and PhD (2003) degrees from the Niels Bohr Institute, under supervision of Jens Hjorth.
I spent 5 years abroad as a postdoctoral research associate at Yale University (with Pieter van Dokkum) and an independent ESO fellow at the European Southern Observatory headquarters in Germany. Since 2009 I have led a research group at the Niels Bohr Institute, funded by a Lundbeck Junior Group Leader fellowship (2009-2014) an ERC consolidator grant (2015-2020), and a DNRF center of excellence grant (2018-2024). My research focuses on the understanding the cosmic origin and evolution of galaxies, primarily through observations with the largest ground and space-based observatories. I am part of several major international research teams, including COSMOS (member of the Scientific Steering Committee), Euclid (Co-lead of the Primeval Universe Working Group), Ultravista (core-member), Hawaii-Two-0 (CoI), Euclid/WFIRST Spitzer Legacy Survey (CoI), BUFFALO (CoI), RELICS (CoI), ALPINE (CoI).

Since 2009 I have taught the undergraduate course “Cosmology”, and supervised postdoc and student research projects on all levels (BSc, MSc, PhD).

Thomas Greve

My research deals with the origin and evolution of massive galaxies. I study them using radio and optical telescopes on the ground and in space. Interfacing with numerical simulations is an important part of this work. I enjoy teaching, supervising students, as well as public outreach.
I am extremely proud and excited to have established the Cosmic Dawn Center together with an amazing group of colleagues and friends.  What started out as a dream is now an actual research center brimming with fantastic scientists, administrators, and students.

Guarn Elizabeth Nissen

Senior Coordinator | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen}

Providing administrative support to enable and enhance groundbreaking scientific research for DAWN and our collaborating partners is very exciting. With focus on creating and maintaining a scientific and social environment that encourages innovative thinking and well-being, I enjoy witnessing scientific discoveries.

I have held the position of Coordinator for the Genotoxic Stress Center of Excellence (GSC) at the Danish Cancer Society. Like DAWN, GSC was also primarily funded by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF). I have a BcS degree from Fontbonne University in St. Louis MO.

Dorte Garde Nielsen

Secretary| The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen}

I provide administrative assistance to DAWN; I enjoy making sure that everything runs smoothly, and that the day-to-day tasks are handled efficiently and with the highest standard of work.

I enjoy witnessing scientific talks and being around enthusiastic people and part of the team.

I am a trained office assistant and have a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from University of Copenhagen. I have more than 10 years of experience providing administrative support to colleagues from previous positions in Danish companies.

Christian Kragh Jespersen

Content Creator/Undergraduate Research| The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen}

I am an undergraduate physics student based at the University of Copenhagen. I have been working at DAWN since November 18, primarily overseeing the website, solving different day-to-day tasks and contributing my own research working with Professor Charles Steinhardt on classifying Gamma Ray Bursts. Furthermore, I have worked with Professor David J. Stevenson at Caltech on the dynamics of hot planetary interiors

Beyond academia, I am a member of the Danish Youth Association of Science, where I dedicate my time to primarily PR and teaching high school – students with a particular interest in physics. In extension to this, I arrange inspiration lectures for physics students every Friday afternoon. I also enjoy many different kinds of watersports, having been on the Danish National Windsurfing Team for quite a long time, along with rock climbing, linguistics (having lived many different places) and general puzzle solving.

Johan Peter Uldall Fynbo

Professor | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen}

I am an astronomy professor based at the Cosmic Dawn Center at the Niels Bohr Institute. I received my master’s degree in 1998 and PhD degree in 2000 from the University of Aarhus advised by Bjarne Thomsen and Palle Møller. Before taking up my current position at the Niels Bohr Institute I worked at the European Southern Observatory headquarters in Germany. My research focuses on the assembly and evolution of galaxies across the history of the Universe, through direct observation with optical and infrared telescopes from both space and the ground. My particular interests are chemical evolution, quasar absorption line systems, and transient sources like gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, gravitational wave sources and fast radio bursts. I am also involved in the development of new instrumentation.

I teach a range of courses in astronomy ranging from introductory astronomy courses to master level courses. In collaboration with colleagues from the University of Aarhus, I also teach a summer course in astronomical observations at the Nordic Optical Observatory on La Palma.

Beyond academia, I am a frequent contributor to public outreach, I am vice chairman of the Danish Astronomical Society and I give many public talks on science.

Charles Steinhardt

I am an associate professor at the Cosmic Dawn Center working on several topics in galaxy evolution and related problems in computer science.  I am currently PI of the BUFFALO HST survey, a large program awarded in Cycle 25 expanding Hubble coverage of the Frontier Fields.  I have also recently been exploring the tension between observations of high-redshift luminous galaxies and theoretical predictions of galactic assembly (arXiv link) and developing models for cosmic ray-dominated evolution.  In addition, develop novel machine learning and astrostatistical methods for working with large datasets.
Previously, I was a postdoc at Caltech working with Peter Capak and Kavli IPMU working with John Silverman, after getting my PhD from Harvard with Martin Elvis.

Darach Jafar Watson

I am an associate professor based at the Cosmic Dawn Center at the Niels Bohr Institute. I received my PhD degree in 2000 from the UCD in Dublin advised by professor Brian McBreen. Before moving to the Niels Bohr Institute, I worked at the University of Leicester as a post.doc. My research interest span a broad range of topics from interstellar dust, gamma-ray bursts, the first galaxies, and sources of gravitational waves. I am mainly observationally oriented and have of the course of my career applied a wide range of techniques and wavelengths ranging from X-rays (using satellites) to the infrared (using ALMA).

I teach a range of courses in physics and astronomy ranging from experimental quantum mechanics to observational astrophysics. I have supervised a large number of students at all levels from BSc to PhDs.
I am also a keen advocate for increased diversity in academia and have published several papers, including in Nature, on this issue.

Georgios Magdis

I am an Associate Professor of astrophysics at National Space Institute of Denmark (DTU Space) and NBI/KU, a core member of the Cosmic DAWN Center of Excellence, and serve as a chair for the Cosmic DAWN post-doctoral Fellowships.  I received my DPhil in astrophysics from the University of Oxford and I have been a post-doctoral researcher at CEA/Saclay, a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, and a DARK/Carlsberg Fellow and Assistant Professor at the DARK Cosmology Center, NBI/KU (2015-2018).
As of 2016 I am also the leader of the ISM/Galaxy-Evolution group, funded by a research grant (Gas to stars, stars to dust – Tracing the evolution of star formation activity across Cosmic time) that I was awarded by the Velux Foundation.
My group and I, focus on the study of distant galaxies aiming to shed light on their formation, their growth (mass build-up), and evolution of their interstellar medium throughout cosmic time. For my research, I use multi-wavelength datasets and I specialise in infrared/submm/radio space as well as ground-based observations. You can find more about me and my research here.

Gabriel Brammer

I am an Associate Professor at the Cosmic Dawn Center. I received my PhD degree from Yale University in 2010, and prior to coming to DAWN I was a postdoctoral Fellow at the European Southern Observatory (Chile) then an ESA/AURA Astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland (USA).

My research involves studying the formation and evolution of galaxies across much of cosmic time, from relatively nearby massive, evolved objects to infant galaxies at the current limit of the observable Universe.  I discover and characterize these objects by and exploiting large imaging and spectroscopic surveys with the Hubble Space Telescope, and I am helping to develop next-generation projects with the Guaranteed Time Observer and Early Release Science programs on the James Webb Space Telescope, due to be launched in 2021.

I also enjoy photography with much smaller glass, including night-sky astrophotography and analog film.

Peter Jakobsen

I received my Masters degree from the University of Copenhagen in 1979 and my PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1983. I was with the European Space Agency (ESA) from 1984 to my retirement from ESA at the end of 2011.

While at ESA I served as the Project Scientist for Europe's participation in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) until 1995. From 1997 to 2011 I held the same position for Europe's contributions to the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). In the latter capacity I oversaw the design and development of the NIRSpec multi-object spectrograph onboard JWST, an instrument that I am still actively involved in.

My scientific interests include astronomical space instrumentation, applied statistics, and the physics of the early universe with emphasis on quasar absorption lines and reionization. I also engage in scientific evangelism, and periodically give public lectures at high schools and other venues across Denmark.

Hans Ulrik Nørregaard-Nielsen

Francesco Valentino

I am an assistant professor based at the Cosmic Dawn Center. I study the evolution of massive galaxies from their initial formation to the last stages of their lives, exploiting the capabilities of powerful telescopes covering the whole electromagnetic spectrum. I am particularly interested in how gas is transformed into stars and how galaxies die, ceasing the formation of new stars. This is the core of my “Galaxies: Rise And Death” (GRAD) project supported by the Carlsberg Foundation for the coming years 2019-2021.

I moved to Copenhagen as a DARK fellow at the Dark Cosmology Centre and then I joined the Cosmic Dawn Center as a DAWN fellow, working in close collaboration with Prof. Georgios Magdis on the project “Gas to Stars - Stars to Dust: Tracing star formation across cosmic time” supported by a Velux Foundation Grant.

I obtained my PhD in 2016 from the Université Paris Diderot (Paris 7) under the supervision of Dr. Emanuele Daddi at the Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique (CEA) in Saclay.

Allan Hornstrup

My interests are focused on cosmology, including the large scale structure of the universe; on space instrumentation and space research in general.  I also fancy exoplanetary studies, including the search for extraterrestrial life.  I enjoy physics, teaching, public outreach and management.

In cosmology, I have studied clusters of galaxies in general (the content) and in particular worked on using clusters of galaxies for cosmological purposes e.g. through the cluster development with time.

Since 2007, I have been head of astrophysics at DTU Space and later included atmospheric physics.  The group has grown from about a dozen to now almost 60 scientists and technicians.  I hold a MSc in astrophysics, a PhD in technical physics and an executive MBA.

Iary Davidzon

I am a DAWN fellow at the Cosmic Dawn Center, working with Sune Toft and his group on several projects based on ultra-deep extragalactic observations collected under the name of Cosmic Dawn Survey.

My main goal is to leverage this exquisite data in the exploration of the first 2-3 billion years of universe’s life, investigating star formation mechanisms in primeval galaxies, especially the most massive ones. I am also interested in the connection of these baryonic processes to the underlying dark matter structure. I study galaxy environment also in large-scale surveys (VIPERS) and galaxy clusters (BUFFALO).

Before moving to Copenhagen I joined Peter Capak’s group at the California Institute of Technology, contributing to introduce novel machine learning methods in the research field of galaxy evolution. Previously I worked in Marseille (France) within the COSMOS collaboration, and before that I was a graduate student in Bologna, where I obtained my PhD in 2014 under the supervision of Micol Bolzonella and Lauro Moscardini. 

In the spare time I like playing ukulele and tinkering with my bikes, which is a quite appropriate hobby now that I live in (probably) the best cycling city in the world.

Seiji Fujimoto

I am a DAWN fellow based at the Cosmic Dawn Center at the Niels Bohr Institute. I received my BCs (2014), MSc (2016), and PhD (2019) degrees from the University of Tokyo, under the supervision of Prof. Masami Ouchi. The thesis title was “Demographics of Cold Universe with ALMA: From Inter-stellar and Circum-galactic Media to Cosmic Structures”, where I carried out a large statistical study for the rest-frame far-infrared properties in high-redshift galaxies. After my PhD, I worked at the University of Waseda with Prof. Akio Inoue as an ALMA project researcher. I am living in Copenhagen as of December 2019.

My research interest is the early Universe, including the topics of the formation and evolution of massive galaxies and black holes, the structure formation, and the interplay between a galaxy and its environment.  I’m working in international projects of e.g., “The ALMA Large Program to Investigate CII at Early Times (ALPINE)”,  “ALMA Lensing Cluster Survey (ALCS)”,  and “Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP)”. I also work as one of the external collaborators in the cosmology group in Scuola Normale Superiore headed by Prof. Andrea Ferrara.

You will find more details on my personal website.

Bo Milvang-Jensen

Researcher | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen}

I am a researcher based at the Cosmic Dawn Center. I received my master's degree from the University of Copenhagen, having carried out the research for my thesis at the University of Texas at Austin. I received my PhD from the University of Nottingham, where my PhD advisor was Alfonso Aragón-Salamanca. Subsequently, I was a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, followed by a number of years at the Dark Cosmology Centre in Copenhagen, and now at DAWN.

I work on observational extragalactic astrophysics, using optical and infrared spectroscopy and imaging (including narrow-band imaging). In particular I have contributed to the EDisCS project studying cluster galaxies, and the UltraVISTA project studying high-redshift galaxies. I also work on gamma-ray bursts, including their host galaxies, and follow-up of gravitational-wave events. Additionally I am instrument scientist for the NTE (NOT Transient Explorer) instrument being designed and built by the Niels Bohr Institute (PI Johan Fynbo).

Nina Bonaventura

Postdoc | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen}

I am an astrophysics post-doctoral researcher at the Cosmic Dawn Center working with Dr. Peter Jakobsen on the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) onboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a joint mission of NASA and the European and Canadian Space Agencies. In preparation for the March 2021 launch of JWST, I design algorithms to optimize observations taken in the NIRSpec Multi-object Spectroscopy (MOS) mode, alongside my international collaborators on the NIRSpec Guaranteed-Time Observer (GTO) Team. I am also involved in various studies of galaxy formation and evolution with members of the Dawn team, as well as the Spitzer Adaptation of the Red-sequence Cluster Survey (SpARCS) collaboration.

I received my PhD degree in Physics in 2017 from McGill University under the supervision of Dr. Tracy Webb (McGill Space Institute), for my contribution to the unexpected discovery of significant star formation activity occurring within a special class of galaxies previously known to be ‘dead’ and inactive.

Previously, I held a NASA Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) Data Specialist position at the Chandra X-ray Center, working on a variety of scientific and technical projects as a member of the Science Data Systems team. I have also worked as a telescope support scientist at Lowell Observatory while a graduate Master’s student at Boston University, personally utilizing and assisting others in the operation of infrared and optical imaging and spectroscopic instruments.

Trity Pourbahrami

I am a science communications practitioner and educator with the ultimate goal of supporting scientists to communicate more effectively and to have greater impact.  As a natural boundary spanner I decided to obtain my undergraduate degrees in Physics and Physiology and my graduate degrees in Social Welfare and Public Administration.  I am a strategic thinker, and community builder with over 15 years of experience in strategic communications, public relations, marketing, and advocacy spanning the non-profit, government, higher education, and corporate sectors. I have a proven track record of effectively engaging diverse groups and organizations in transforming strategy into operational goals, objectives, and measurable outcomes.

In addition to being a practitioner of communications I am an educator and have designed and delivered a variety of customized trainings as well as a new graduate course on effective oral, written, and media communications.

I also enjoy building community through serving on various local, national, and international community groups including the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America and Leadership Pasadena.

Claudia Lagos

International Associate | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, University of Western Australia}

I am a Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research at the University of Western Australia and I am an international Associate at the Cosmic Dawn Center. I received my PhD degree from Durham University in 2013, and prior to coming to my current position I was a Research Fellow at the European Southern Observatory (Germany) and then a Discovery Early Career Researcher at ICRAR/UWA (Australia).

My research involves studying galaxy formation and evolution using state-of-the-art cosmological simulations of galaxy formation and large galaxy surveys. I am the main developer of the new Shark semi-analytic model of galaxy formation and one of the members of the EAGLE Simulations collaboration. I am also a member of several galaxy surveys including several being carried out with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, the Anglo-Australian Telescope and the future 4MOST instrument at Paranal, Chile.

Kate Whitaker

Associate Professor | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{University of Massachusetts}

I am an Assistant Professor at the of University of Massachusetts, and Associate Faculty at the Cosmic Dawn Center. I received my PhD degree from Yale University in 2012, after which point I was awarded a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowship at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland (USA), then a Hubble Fellowship at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (USA).

As an observational extragalactic astronomer, I study galaxy formation and evolution over the past twelve billion years of cosmic time. My students and I actively collaborate with DAWN, working towards pushing our detection quiescent “read and dead” galaxies even earlier in time (within a billion years of the Big Bang itself!). We would like to understand the detailed physics of the structures and underlying stellar populations of these early massive galaxies. With exquisite Hubble Space Telescope imaging and spectroscopy, we explore the rich uncharted territory of the distant universe and continually piece together an intriguing timeline of the cosmos.

I also enjoy dancing, photography, crafting, and spending time with my family.

Peter Laursen

Postdoc | Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics
_{University of Oslo}

I study galaxies; in particular the light coming from processes that have to do with galaxy formation. I use computer simulations to predict and interpret "real" observations. More specifically, I use hydrodynamical galaxy formation simulations with Monte Carlo Lyman α radiative transfer.

I got my PhD from the Dark Cosmology Centre (DARK), Copenhagen, moved on to a postdoc at the Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm, came back to DARK, and am now in Oslo. Being Copenhagen-based, I am affiliated with (and spend 70% of my time at) DAWN.

I enjoy communicating science to the public, frequently giving popular talks, tweeting about astronomy, and answering questions on my Q&A column and on the StackExchange site for physics and astronomy.

Personal website
Personal website

Academic awards
2018: Best science outreach
2011: Sweden's most cited astrophysics paper
Selected papers
2019: Chasing Lyman α-emitting galaxies at z = 8.8
2013: On the (non-)enhancement of the Lyα equivalent width by a multiphase interstellar medium
2011: Intergalactic transmission and its impact on the Lyα line

Karina Caputi

Associate Staff | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{University of Groningen}

I am an Associate Professor at the University of Groningen (Netherlands) and Associate Staff (zero appointment) at the Cosmic Dawn Center. I received my PhD degree from the University of Edinburgh in 2005, and then worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the IAS, Orsay, France and the ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Between 2009 and 2011 I was a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, just before I joined the University of Groningen in 2012.

My research involves studying the formation and evolution of galaxies in the first half of cosmic time. I mainly work with space infrared telescopes (e.g. Spitzer) and ground-based telescopes (e.g. VLT). In addition, I am part of the European Guaranteed-Time Science Consortium for the MidInfrared Instrument (MIRI) that will be on board the James Webb Space Telescope, due to be launched in 2021.

Kristian Finlator

Assistant Professor | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{New Mexico State University}

I received my PhD from the University of Arizona in 2009. After this, I held a Hubble Fellowship at UC Santa Barbara from 2009-2012 and a DARK fellowship at the Dark Centre for Cosmology from 2013-2015. Since fall 2015, I have been an Assistant Professor at NMSU.

I am interested in the processes that couple galaxies with their environments. Although I have previously studied the relationship between galactic outflows and the mass-metallicity relation, the research that I lead nowadays is anchored in detailed comparisons between predictions from cosmological simulations and observations of galaxies, the circumgalactic medium, and the intergalactic medium. My goal is always to learn how observations constrain the feedback processes that regulate galaxy growth and reionization.

I enjoy learning Danish, jogging, and playing with my two young children. Long ago (z~10^-9) I also played in orchestras; I’m sure I will get back to that at some point.

Peter Capak

Associate | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_IPAC/Caltech

Until February 2020 I was a Senior Research Scientist with the Euclid NASA Science Center at the California Institute of Technology where I studied the formation and evolution of structure in the universe. I have since joined the Oculus team at Facebook as Architect of Perception Systems for Augmented and Virtual reality.  I received my BSc (1999) from the University of British Columbia, and my MSc (2002) and PhD (2004) from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

My research interests focused in two areas: the physical processes that govern the formation and evolution of the most massive galaxies in the early universe (z>2) and large area surveys to measure galaxy properties and probe Dark Energy and Dark Matter. I am a founding member of the Euclid consortia, developed the redshift estimation pipeline and simulations for the NASA SPHEREx mission, and was a member of the WFIRST cosmology science definition teams.  I was also principal investigator of the Spitzer Legacy Survey and the SPLASH Spitzer Exploration Science programs which were two of the largest ever carried out on the Spitzer Space Telescope using a year of time.  Previously I was lead of the COSMOS project, lead of the CCAT high-z science working group, and leading to effort to produce enhanced imaging products and a source list for the Spitzer archive.  I have also been co-organizer of the PHAT project aimed at developing a set of best practices for photometric redshifts and made significant contributions to the GOODS Legacy project including deep imaging of The Hawaii Hubble Deep Field North. 

Desika Narayannan

Associate | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{University of Florida}

I’m currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida in the US.  Prior to this, I was an Assistant Professor at Haverford College in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.  I grew up in Florida, went to undergrad school at the University of Florida and grad school at the University of Arizona.  I did postdocs at Harvard (CfA Fellowship) and Arizona (Bok Fellowship).  

My research focuses on theoretical models primarily related to cosmological galaxy evolution, star formation, and the interstellar medium (ISM).   I principally develop and utilize large scale numerical simulations to simulate the interplay between small scale star formation, ISM physics, and global galaxy evolution.  

I love (American) college football, surfing, snowboarding, jam bands, hiking, and hockey.

Fabian Walter

Associate | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{Max Planck Institute for Astronomy}

I am a Senior Scientist and Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, Germany. I received my Master Degree at the University of New Mexico (USA) in 1995, and my PhD in astronomy at Bonn University (Germany). I held a postdoctoral appointment at Caltech (Pasadena, USA) from 1999-2002 in the Owens Valley Radio Observatory group. After that, I received the Jansky Fellowship of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which I took to the VLA headquarters in Socorro, New Mexico (USA). Since 2004 I am a staff member at the MPIA (tenured in 2008), and am still an Adjunct Associate Astronomer at NRAO. I am also a Scientific Editor for the AAS Journals (American Astronomical Society).

My research focuses on studies of the evolution of galaxies and quasars, from the end of cosmic reionization to today. My particular focus is on the studies of the interstellar medium that is a requirement for star formation to proceed. In my research, I intensively use the ALMA, IRAM NOEMA, and VLA radio/millimeter interferometers. In this context I have led a number of large initiatives, such as the THINGS survey of HI emission in nearby galaxies, the HERACLES survey to map the distribution of molecular gas in nearby galaxies, surveys to characterize the interstellar medium in the most distant quasars, and a large ALMA program that studies the molecular gas and dust content in the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (ASPECS).

Luis Colina

International Associate | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
Spanish Research Council CSIC

I am a senior research scientist of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) at the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) in Madrid (Spain), and International Associate at the Cosmic Dawn Center. I received my Master Degree at the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain) in 1982, and my PhD in Natural Sciences at the University of Goettingen (Germany) in 1987. I have worked as an ESA postdoctoral fellow (1989-1990), and ESA staff astronomer (1993-1998) at the Space Telescope Science Institute (Baltimore, USA). I was Associate Professor at the University of Valencia before joining the Spanish National Research Council in 2000. I have been involved with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) as MIRI European coPI and Spanish PI since 2000. I am co-chair of the European MIRI High-redshift GTO team, and coI of the MIRI Nearby Galaxies GTO team since 2010. My research interests focus mostly on the study of the formation and evolution of dusty star-forming galaxies and AGNs at both low- and high redshifts using different multi-wavelength imaging and integral field spectroscopy techniques from the ground (ALMA, VLT), and space (HST, Spitzer, JWST)

Pascal Oesch

International Associate | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
Department of Astronomy | University of Geneva

I am currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Geneva, where I lead a research group “Galaxy Build-up at Cosmic Dawn”. Additionally, I am an International Associate of the Cosmic DAWN Centre. I obtained my PhD in 2010 at ETH Zurich, after which I moved to UC Santa Cruz as a Hubble Fellow (2010-2013) and then to Yale as a YCAA Fellow (2013-2016). Already starting from my PhD studies, my research has focused on understanding the build-up and assembly of the first generations of galaxies based on panchromatic observations. In particular, I use very deep imaging and spectroscopy from the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, in addition to ground-based follow-up with Keck, VLT, ALMA, and NOEMA. This allows us to trace the galaxy mass build-up out to z~11, when the Universe was only ~400 Myr old, where we have found the most distant galaxy known so far: GN-z11.

John R. Weaver

I am a PhD student based at the Cosmic Dawn Center advised by Sune Toft, with Peter Capak (IPAC), Henry McCracken (IAP), and Dave Sanders (IfA). I received my Masters degree in 2018 from the University of St Andrews advised by Vivienne Wild. My research focuses on the assembly and evolution of galaxies across the 1.37 billion year history of our Universe, through direct observation with optical and infrared telescopes from both space and from the ground.

Previously, I have interned as a summer researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy, Leiden Observatory, and the Maria Mitchell Observatory. I am also the project director of the spectroscopy database at the American Association of Variable Star Observers.

Beyond academia, I am a frequent contributor to popular science publications, and have been a long-time volunteer at public observatories.

Meghana Killi

I am a student in the integrated MSc+PhD programme at the Cosmic DAWN Center, advised by Dr. Darach Watson.

Beginning in eighth grade, I underwent intensive training for the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) entrance exam. I was accepted into the Mechanical Engineering programme at IIT Kharagpur, but after graduating in 2015, I decided to switch tracks and follow my childhood passion for Astronomy.

In 2016, I moved to the US, and began a second Bachelor’s degree in Astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin, where I worked with Dr. Caitlin Casey on submillimeter galaxy observations, and with Dr. Volker Bromm on dark matter theory. Two intense and transformative years later, I graduated with highest honors, and was accepted to DAWN.

I am currently studying the origin of various elements in the universe. More broadly, my research interests lie in our cosmic origins, first stars and galaxies, and events in the very early universe just after the Big Bang.

Vasily Kokorev

PhD Student| The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen}

I am a PhD student at the Cosmic Dawn Centre working under the supervision of Georgios Magdis. My current research focuses on the evolution of molecular gas in galaxies with redshift. My other research interests include the formation of first galaxies and the epoch of reionisation.

I received my master’s degree in Physics with Astrophysics at the University of Sussex in 2018, where I have carried out work related to the 21 cm radio astronomy, while being advised by Mark Sargent.

Sinclaire Manning

PhD Student | National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate/The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{University of Texas at Austin}

I am a PhD student and National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin working with Caitlin Casey. Through the NSF in collaboration with the Danish National Research Foundation, I received a grant to travel to Copenhagen for five months and complete a research project related to my thesis with Georgios Magdis at DAWN. While at DAWN I will be characterizing a small sample of high redshift dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) which have recently been detected in a new, deep 2mm map with ALMA. With these new observations we hope to put constraints on the prevalence of obscured starbursts at z>4 and infer their number density. I will also work to use ancillary data from the COSMOS/CANDELS survey, combined with deep near-infrared coverage, to characterize multiwavelength counterparts of these 2mm detected galaxies.

Originally from Seattle, Washington, I moved to Washington, D.C. and obtained my B.S. in Physics and B.A. in Spanish from Howard University in 2015.

Athanasios Anatasiou

MSc Student| The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen}

I am a MSc student at the Cosmic Dawn center working on my Thesis with Georgios Magdis.  My thesis focuses on cross-validating the new photometric data of the Cosmos 2020 catalogue with previous versions and other surveys in the literature. More specifically, I’m examining the properties of galaxies such as photometric redshift, color classification and stellar mass. This is done with the use of updated photometric data from 15 different filters from 4 different telescopes (CFHT, VISTA , Subaru and Spitzer). With this work we hope to obtain deeper data , less outliers between photometric and spectroscopic redshift , possibly new galaxy populations and a better galaxy mass assembly constraint.

I originally come from Greece where I graduated from the University of Athens in 2018 and obtained my BSc degree.

Clara Giménez Arteaga

MSc student| The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen}

I am a Master’s student at the Cosmic Dawn Center

,

I obtained my Bachelor's degree in Physics in 2018 at the University of Barcelona, where I am originally from.

Simon Pochinda

MSc Student | The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen}

I am an MSc student at the Cosmic DAWN Center, advised by Georgios Magdis and Gabriel Brammer.

I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Physics in 2018 at the University of Southern Denmark under the supervision of Mads Toudal Frandsen, where I worked on numerically determining the dark matter distribution of merging galaxy clusters. Following my Bachelor’s degree in Physics I moved to the University of Copenhagen to pursue my lifelong interest in Astronomy. During my time at the University of Copenhagen I have also studied abroad at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London and participated in the Nordic Optical Telescope Summer School at La Palma offered by the Instrument Center for Danish Astrophysics.

My current work involves characterization of high redshift dusty galaxies within the GOODS-S legacy field using multiwavelength observational data. This involves determination of photometric redshifts through fitting computationally generated galaxy templates using the EaZY code.

Albert Bjerregård Sneppen

BSc Student| The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen}

I am 3^rd year undergraduate student within physics at the Niels Bohr Institute. Currently, I am working with Prof. Charles Steinhardt on possible temperature dependencies of the stellar IMF. Additionally, I am working on quantifying the effect of using supernova redshifts instead of host galaxy redshifts for measurements of cosmological parameters. Here we have shown that using the more poorly measured redshift from broad supernova emission lines yields a biased cosmology

Simone Vejlgaard

BSc Student| The Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)
_{Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen}

I am currently writing my bachelor thesis at the Cosmic Dawn Center, advised by prof. Johan Fynbo.

After graduating from the Danish Talent Center (ATU) and my local Danish high school in 2017, I received the ’Carlsen-Langes Legatstiftelse’ for diligence and highest grade point average of the year. I then decided to move to Copenhagen to study my passion, astrophysics, at the University of Copenhagen.

My journey continued as I was accepted to join the Nordic Optical Telescope Summer School 2019, where I gained my first experience on the use of different telescopes and instruments. Inspired by the talented team of teachers and the instructive experience, they provided me with, I successfully applied to the Vatican Observatory Summer School which I will be attending the summer of 2020.

Since my research interests lie in the mysteries of the early universe and the formation of the first galaxies, I am very pleased with studying  at DAWN.

Bidisha Sen

I am interning at DAWN for a year as part of an international internship program through MIT, called MISTI, during a gap year after completing my B.S. in Physics and Mathematical Economics from MIT and before attending graduate school. Currently, I am working with Prof. Charles Steinhardt on a project relating to the difference in the measurement of the Hubble constant between the Pantheon dataset and the Planck estimate. We have been quantifying the effect of using supernova redshifts instead of host galaxy redshifts among other systematic errors to reconcile these numbers. 

Ivanna Langan

I am a French master’s student from Université de Montpellier. I finished my dual undergraduate degree and my master’s degree first year at La Sorbonne. This scholar year, I decided to take a year off in my studies to gain more diverse experience. I will be working at Dawn for 4 months, under the supervision of Gabriel Brammer. During this internship I’ll be studying the Galaxy Mass-Size relationship in massive galaxy clusters in the Early Universe.  

Giacomo Girelli

I am a PhD student at the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Bologna (Italy) working under the supervision of Lucia Pozzetti and Micol Bolzonella.

I received a Marco Polo grant from the University of Bologna to spend three months in Copenhagen at the DAWN Institute working with Dr. Iary Davidzon. While at DAWN I worked on developing a method to empirically assign galaxy properties to dark matter N-body simulations (Millennium, DUSTGRAIN) in order to create galaxy mock catalogs. With these mocks we hope to help optimising the scientific exploitation of ongoing and future large surveys, such as Euclid and H2O, by means of understanding and minimising systematic uncertainties and selection effects.

 I am also interested in the study of massive and quiescent galaxies in the young Universe, by means of color selections and SED-fitting techniques.

 On free time I enjoy sports, outdoor activities and, in general, staying in touch with nature.