Research Interests

I am engaged in a diverse program of research in astrophysics including experimental, observational, and some theoretical components.
Historically, my efforts have been concentrated in X-ray spectroscopy of astrophysical sources, but more recently I have moved into experimental cosmology. I am currently the Deputy Project Director and the Camera Lead Scientist for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) project, which will survey half the visible sky every few nights and provide a sensitive map of the distribution of dark matter in the local universe (z < 1). The statistical properties of the dark matter distribution provide sensitive constraints on the cosmological expansion history, and thus the nature of the mysterious dark energy which dominates the energy density of the universe.

• Cosmology
• Observational Astrophysics
• Theoretical Astrophysics

Career History

• Ph.D., 1980, University of California, Berkeley
• A.B., Physics, 1975, Columbia University
• Assistant Professor of Physics, Columbia University, 1982- 1984
• Assistant Professor of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, 1983-1987
• Associate Professor of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, 1987-1990
• Associate Professor of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, 1989-1990
• Professor of Physics and Astronomy, 1990-1998, University of California, Berkeley
• Professor of Physics, Columbia University, 1995- 2001
• I.I. Rabi Professor of Physics, Columbia University, 2001-2003
• Professor of Physics, Stanford University, and at SLAC, 2003-present
• Deputy Director, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, 2003-2007
• Cassius Lamb Kirk Professor in the Natural Sciences, Stanford University, 2005 - present.
• Director of Particle and Particle Astrophysics, SLAC, 2007-present
  

• Principal Investigator for U.S. participation, XMM-Newton Reflection Grating/CCD Experiment, Constellation-X Observatory, 1997-present
• Deputy Project Director and Camera Lead Scientist, Large Synoptic Survey Telescope Project, 2004 - present.
• Elected to Fellowship, American Physical Society, 1991