My research is in theoretical cosmology: the structure and evolution of the universe. Cosmologists seek to answer questions such as: What is the universe made of? What happened at the very beginning of the universe? How did the universe evolve from the very beginning to today?

I am continually amazed by how much we know about the universe, and, at the same time, by how much we don't know and still have to learn. Using physics and mathematics, we are able to extract remarkable knowledge about the vast universe just from data we can take here on Earth and with satellites near the Earth. We now have a strong theory about the make-up of the universe, how it evolved, and possibly even what happened at the big bang: the "standard cosmological model". The theory is impressively consistent with everything we know, including many different kinds of precise data based on different physical assumptions. However, there are some important things we don't understand yet (such as what really is "dark matter" and "dark energy"), and the model relies on simplifications that have not been explicitly tested. My research takes a closer look at the underlying simplifications and assumptions, and finds ways to use the available data to test them.

To learn more about cosmology, check out WMAP's universe page and Sean Carroll's cosmology primer for excellent introductions without math. For those with short attention spans, visit the Universe Adventure, a new interactive website.

For a technical introduction (at a first-year graduate level), here is the introductory chapter of my Ph.D. thesis, reformatted as a convenient 17-page article in PDF.

If you are a WCU student majoring in physics (or a related field such as math or computer science), and might be interested in working on a research project in my field, please come chat with me or drop me an email. You could also join us for Cosmology Journal Club meetings, held Tuesday mornings on campus via videoconferencing with the Astrophysics and Cosmology Research Unit at UKZN South Africa, where we chat about the latest papers in cosmology.

Current & past research projects

Link to my publications

Astrophysics Links

Teaching Resources

Revised: 9/9/09