about meabout
quick facts
I am a theoretical and computational physicist, working in gravitation and cosmology. My research is aimed at the most fundamental questions about the universe: what is the mechanism that set the big bang initial conditions? what is the universe composed of? and how will it be changing in the future? I develop innovative mathematical and numerical methods to explain complex phenomena and make quantitative, testable predictions. My work is also highly influenced by observations, so I make a point of interacting with numerous experimental groups.
research
Currently, I am a Senior Research Scientist at New York University and a Principal Investigator of the Simons Initiative New Directions in Cosmology and Gravitational Theory. I moved to NYU from the Max Planck Society, where I was a Lise Meitner group leader and professor of theoretical physics (2019-22). Before that, I held the inaugural John A. Wheeler Fellowship at the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science (2014-7) and spent two years as a Principal Investigator of the Origins of the Universe Initiative at Columbia (2017-8) and Harvard (2018-9).
academic positions
I completed my doctoral dissertation at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in 2014. The last two years of my PhD studies, I was supported by prize fellowships that enabled me to conduct research abroad; I was the Fritz Thyssen Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics during 2012-3 and spent the academic year 2013-4 at the Physics Department of Princeton University.
education
I wrote another, award-winning PhD thesis at Munich University in 2010, studying philosophical implications of quantum physics. The Philosophy of Science remains an interest. Besides my research in Cosmology, I am actively participating in the dialogue with Philosophy and the Humanities in general.