Farnik Nikakhtar

I am a YCAA Prize Fellow at the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, where I work on various concepts in theoretical astrophysics. I obtained my Ph.D. in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Pennsylvania, along with a dual Master’s degree in Statistics from the Wharton School. Prior to Penn, I completed my B.Sc. in Physics (minor in Computer Science) at Sharif University of Technology.

My research spans a wide range of topics from cosmological scales (large scale structure and dark energy) to galactic scales (stellar dynamics and dark matter). I am an active member of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI)

Energy in the Universe is distributed as roughly ~70% dark energy and ~30% dark matter. My research is split into dark energy-related and dark matter-related work with a similar distribution of focus!