Cosmology @ S.U.

Faculty

	Christian Armendariz-Picon works on various aspects of early and late-time cosmology, including inflation and the search for the origin of cosmic acceleration. More details can be found on his research page.
	Richard Schnee is an experimental cosmologist working primarily on the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) experiment.
	Mark Trodden's research concerns the interplay between gravity and particle physics in the very early universe. He studies the cosmological implications of quantum field theories, General Relativity, and superstring theories. More details can be found on his research page.

	Manuel Toharia is a visiting scientist (8/1/2007 - 7/31/2008) working on the particle physics and cosmological implications of beyod that standard model physics. He is particularly interested in extra dimensional theories.
	Damien George is a visiting graduate student (2/4/2008 - 4/30/2008) from the University of Melbourne, working on field-theoretical constructions of warped brane world models, and their implications for cosmology and particle physics.

	Michele Fontanini is a new student who joined the group in Spring 2007.
	Jim Holsapple is a student of Prof. Armendariz-Picon.
	Riccardo Penco is a new student who joined the group in Spring 2007.
	Alessandra Silvestri is a student of Prof. Trodden working on density perturbations and the cosmic microwave background in modified gravity models. She is also thinking about the connections between extra dimensional theories and dark matter.
	Eric West is a student of Prof. Trodden studying particle production in non-standard models of the inflationary universe.

	Nicolas Chatillon was a joint postdoc between the cosmology and hight energy theory groups from 9/2005-9/2007, and is particularly interested in supersymmetric and extra dimensional theories, and their implications for cosmology.
	Levon Pogosian was a group postdoc from 9/2005 - 9/2006 and has broad interests in the analysis of cosmological datasets, inflation, topological defects and models of dark energy.We are working on structure formation in modified gravity theories. Levon is currently an Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.
	Damien Easson was a postdoctoral research associate working with Prof. Trodden from 2003 - 2005 and works on a variety of topics on the particle physics/cosmology interface. Damien has been particularly interested in superstring cosmology, with specific focus on the brane-gas approach to the early universe. Damien is now a postdoctoral researcher at Durham University.
	Laura Mersini was a postdoc working with Prof. Trodden and the High-Energy Theory group from 2002 - 2003 and focused on a variety of topics on the particle physics/cosmology interface. She was particularly interested in the possibility of generating dark energy from transPlanckian physics in string theory. We completed an analysis of current constraints on the dark energy equation of state. Laura is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Former Graduate Students

	Antonio DeFelice was a graduate student of Prof. Trodden from 2001-2005. Among other things, he studied the equation of state of dark energy in Brans-Dicke theories, modified gravity model, quintessential baryogenesis and numerical solutions to understand the shapes of Dirichlet defects. Antonio is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Particle Physics and Phenomenology at Louvain University in Belgium.
	Salah Nasri was a graduate student who worked with Prof. Trodden and with Prof. Joe Schechter. Salah is an expert on the physics of grand unified theories and neutrinos and has been applying this knowledge to cosmology. Together we have studied neutrinos and leptogenesis in TeV-scale models, the connection between neutrino masses and dark matter, quintessential baryogenesis, and some aspects of cosmology in extra dimensional space-times. Salah is now a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Florida.
	Martin Sahlén is a graduate student with Andrew Liddle at the University of Sussex and was a visiting graduate student in our group in the Fall of 2006, working on several different aspects of cosmology.

Former Undergraduate Students

	Collin Capano spent most of the 2004-2005 academic year doing research in cosmology with Prof. Trodden. He studied the expansion history of the universe in non-Einstein theories of gravity
	Gavin Hartnett spent the summer of 2006 working with Prof. Trodden on the cosmology of modified gravity models.
	Jennifer Kroll spent the summer of 2006 working with Prof. Trodden on the cosmology of modified gravity models.
	Matt Turner spent the summer of 2006 working with Prof. Trodden on the cosmology of modified gravity models.

Other Students

Dejan Stojkovic worked with Glenn Starkman and Prof. Trodden on the cosmology of compact hyperbolic extra dimensions.
Simeon Hellerman worked with Sean Carroll and Prof. Trodden on brane junctions in supersymmetry and supergravity.
Stephen Davis worked with Anne Davis and Prof. Trodden on topological defects and supercurrents in supersymmetric theories

Teodora Beloreshka was a senior at Caltech in applied mathematics, and in the summer of 2001 she did research here with Prof. Trodden, working on the casimir effect in extra dimensions.
Mark Gelsthorpe was a final year physics student at Durham University in England. He also worked with Prof. Trodden during the summer of 2001 on the casimir effect in extra dimensions.

John Best was a high school student studying a 3-year project on early universe cosmology with Prof. Trodden and Prof. Don Marolf
Vince Primiano was a high school student studying some astronomy and learning how to develop interactive virtual reality environments in which to learn astronomy, with Prof. Trodden and Prof.Peter Saulson.
Johanna Busch, Anne Hammerstrom and Ellie Kim were students at Hathaway Brown school. They completed a web page on the cosmic microwave background as part of their learning about the early universe. This project won seconnd prize in the Ohio Regional Science Fair and was also entered in the National Siemens science competition.