I am a Professor in the Department of Astronomy and am currently serving as Interim Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell.

I am a Fellow of the American Physical Society,  a recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE), from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and a Cottrell Scholar Award, for excellence in research and teaching. As a member of the NASA Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) science team,  I was a co-recipient of a NASA Group Achievement Award, the 2012 Gruber Prize and the 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

I take an active role in my university and broader science communities. I’m currently serving on the Simons Foundation Mathematical and Physical Sciences Advisory Board and the Euclid Space Telescope US Science Team Steering Committee. I have previously served on advisory committees for the LSST experiment and as a member of the US Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Council (AAAC), that advises NSF, NASA and the DOE on areas of mutual interest/concern. From 2015-17, I was the collaboration leader (“Spokesperson”) for the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration, an international collaboration of over 500 scientists, and am actively involved in science teams for a number of upcoming astronomical surveys and space missions.

At Cornell, I previously served as the College of Arts of Sciences Senior Associate Dean for Math and Science and before that as Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education overseeing admissions, advising, career development and registrar services, and the undergraduate curriculum. I have also served as the Chair of the Diversity Committee and the Chair of the Data Science Curriculum Committee in the College of Arts of Sciences, following which I led the introduction of a university-wide undergraduate minor in Data Science.

I joined Cornell’s Department of Astronomy in 2005. Prior to that, I was a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University. I received my Ph.D. and M.Sc. in theoretical physics from Imperial College London and a BA Hons.in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University.