Matias Zaldarriaga

Matias Zaldarriaga (* 1971 in Buenos Aires ) is an Argentine astrophysicist who deals with cosmology and in particular cosmic background radiation (CMB).

Zaldarriaga graduated from the University of Buenos Aires with a degree in physics in 1994 and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998. In 1996 he received the Barrett Prize from MIT for astrophysics and in 1998 he was a Hubble Fellow. As a post-doctoral student, he was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study from 1998 to 2001 , where he was Keck Visiting Associate in Cosmology in 2001/02. From 2001 to 2002 he was an assistant professor at New York University . In 2003 he became an Associate Professor at Harvard University , where he became Professor of Physics and Astronomy in 2004. Since 2009 he has been Professor of Astrophysics at the Institute for Advanced Study.

He is known for detailed studies of the cosmic background radiation, in which he searches for clues to physical processes in the early universe. Together with the Slovenian astrophysicist Uros Seljak (* 1966; Professor at the University of California, Berkeley) he wrote the software CMBFAST, which is widely used today, to calculate the anisotropy of the cosmic background radiation for any cosmological parameter. He used gravitational lens effects and the observation of the polarization of the cosmic background radiation in order to obtain the distribution of otherwise invisible matter in the universe, which influences the light propagation of the CMB on the way to the observer. He suggested that by observing the variation of cosmic background radiation in the region of the wavelength of 21 cm (the characteristic HI line of neutral hydrogen in intergalactic space) we could get clues about the state of the cosmos before and at the time of the formation of the first stars . In pursuit of this observation program he is involved with colleagues in Princeton in several international programs such as the Planck Space Telescope , Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), James Webb Space Telescope .

He worked with Leonardo Senatore on effective field theories of inflation and gravitational wave signals in the early universe.

In 2005 he received the Gribov Medal . In 2006 he became a MacArthur Fellow . In 2003 he received the American Astronomical Society's Helen B. Warner Prize for Young Astronomers. In 2001 he was a Packard Fellow and in 2004 a Sloan Fellow . In 2018 Zaldarriaga was elected to the National Academy of Sciences .

Web links

• Homepage at the IAS (English)
• MacArthur Foundation (English)