Professor Asantha Cooray

Professor of Physics & Astronomy

acooray@uci.edu

(949) 701-6393

2162 Frederick Reines Hall

Research Interests:

Cosmology, Early Universe, Cosmic Microwave Background, Cosmic Infrared Background, Large Scale Structure

Asantha Cooray is a Professor and a Chancellor’s Fellow at UCI and a member of the research faculty at the California Institute of Technology. His research expertise is in the field of space science, cosmology, astrophysics and is a member of several space-based and NASA sounding rocket experiments and instrumentation aimed at understanding the early universe, first stars, and galaxies. He is a member of the ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory-SPIRE Instrument Team and several NASA astrophysics missions planned for this decade, including the Inflation Probe. He has contributed to topics in field such as halo model of the galaxy distribution in the large-scale structure, and has developed ways to measure and quantify physical properties of dark energy and dark matter in the universe. Cooray is also a Science Editor of Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (JCAP).

Curriculum Vitae

A full list of publications may be found here

Education

• Ph.D., Astrophysics, University of Chicago — June 2001
  Thesis: Applications of Halo Approach to Non-Linear Large Scale Structure Clustering
  Advisor: Prof. Wayne Hu

• M.S., Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Chicago — December 1998

• M.S., Astrophysics and Planetary Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology — 1997
  Thesis: Stellar Occultation Observations of Saturn’s North-Polar Temperature Structure
  Advisors: Prof. James L. Elliot & Prof. Bernard Burke

• B.S., Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology — 1997

• B.S., Earth, Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences, MIT — 1997

• B.S., Applied Mathematics, MIT — 1997
  Minor: Anthropology

Academic Distinctions

• NASA Group Achievement Award, CIBER — 2014

• NASA Group Achievement Award, Herschel-SPIRE — 2012

• Chancellor’s Fellow, UC Irvine — 2007–2010

• NSF CAREER Award — 2007

• UCI Chancellor’s Award for Excellence and Distinguished Fostering of Undergraduate Research — 2007

• Sherman Fairchild Senior Research Fellow, Caltech — 2001

Grants & Awards

• Sugarman Award for Excellence in Research, Enrico Fermi Institute — 2000

• McCormick Fellowship, University of Chicago Physical Sciences Division — 1997–2000

• Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research

• Member, Sigma Xi (Scientific Research Honor Society)

• Member, Sigma Pi Sigma (Physics Honor Society)

Fellowships

• Sherman Fairchild Senior Research Fellow, Caltech — 2001–2007 (Accepted)

• Miller Fellowship, UC Berkeley (declined)

• Leverhulme Fellowship, Oxford University (declined)

• Keck Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Study (declined)

• Lyman Spitzer, Jr. Fellowship, Princeton University (declined)

• Chandra Fellowship (declined)

Professional Activities

Collaborations & Memberships

• CIBER (Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment) — Co-Investigator

• EPIC (Experimental Probe of Inflationary Cosmology) — Member, CMBpol Working Group

• DUET (Dark Universe Explorer Telescope) — Collaborator

• Herschel SPIRE Science Consortium — Associate

• SIRTF IRAC Science Team — External Science Member

Astronomical Observing Experience

Visiting Astronomer at:
BIMA, OVRO, VLA, IRTF, CTIO, APO, MDM, KPNO

Published Contributions

• Invited review article in Physics Reports (with Ravi Sheth) — Over 200 pages

Invited Talks & Presentations

• Speaker, International Astronomical Union General Meeting — 2003, Sydney

• Colloquia and seminars at: Institute for Advanced Study, Caltech, Fermilab, Oxford, UC Davis, UT Austin, Cornell, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon, Penn State, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, University of Wisconsin, Purdue, Notre Dame

Peer Review & Service

• Referee for journals:
  Physical Review Letters, Physical Review D, Astrophysical Journal, ApJ Letters, Astronomy & Astrophysics, MNRAS, IJMP, Physics Reports

• Grant review panels:
  Israel Science Foundation, NSF, NASA (ATP Panel, Origins Panel)

Professional Memberships

• Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society

• Full Member, American Astronomical Society

  • General Division

  • Planetary Science Division

  • High Energy Astrophysics Division

• Member, Sigma Xi