Risa Wechsler
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i am a cosmologist, a professor of physics at stanford university and the slac national accelerator laboratory, and the director of the kavli institute for particle astrophysics and cosmology.

my major research interests are focused on understanding the growth of structure in the universe, how structure formation drives galaxy formation, and how galaxies can be used to probe the the fundamental physics of the universe, including the nature of dark matter and dark energy. i use large computer simulations, physical and empirical models, and the deepest and largest galaxy surveys to determine how the universe formed and evolved.

from 2014-2018 i was the co-spokesperson of the dark energy spectroscopic instrument (DESI), and am a founding member of the dark energy survey (DES) and the LSST dark energy science collaboration. other major current projects include a study of the satellites of milky way analogs called the SAGA (satellites around galactic analogs) survey and the COMA (comappingarray) project.

check out my academic genealogy, which traces back to gauss.

my trajectory


san francisco: i have lived in the fabulous city on the bay since 2006.
chicago: i was a hubble fellow and enrico fermi fellow at the kavli institute for cosmological physics at the university of chicago.
ann arbor: i did my first postdoc in the physics department at the university of michigan, working with gus evrard, tim mckay, rachel somerville, and fred adams.
santa cruz: i did my dissertation with joel primack in the ucsc physics department.
cambridge: i went to college at mit, where i studied physics, and lived at a place called wilg. i also did some performing of various sorts.
seattle: i was born in a little coffee drinking city surrounded by mountains. i attended garfield high school, pacific northwest ballet school & cornish dance, and also did some traveling.
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  • Home
  • Who
    • GFC Group
    • CV
  • What
    • Research
    • Collaborations
    • Publications
    • Press
    • Technical Talks
    • Public Talks
    • Teaching
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  • News
  • Useful things