I work on trying to understand the nature and properties of “dark energy”, a mysterious component that makes up about 70% of the energy in the universe and makes it accelerate. This includes using type Ia supernova measurements, large-scale structure surveys and weak and strong gravitational lensing as tools of precision cosmology. I am also interested in testing the gaussianity of cosmic microwave background radiation. And I am a member of the SNAP collaboration, a team that proposes to study dark energy using an ultimate probe — a new space telescope, custom-built for this purpose.
I am helping develop cosmology curriculum and teaching a science club class at a charter school on Chicago’s South Side. I am planning to be an organizer of the cosmology course for planetarium directors, to be held in Chicago in 2005.
