Risa Wechsler

I am a cosmologist, and an associate professor of physics at stanford university and the slac national accelerator laboratory. as of september 2018 i am 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.