Anja Von Der Linden

Research Group Website | Publications

Biography:

• Associate Professor, Stony Brook, since 2022
• DOE Early Career Award 2017
• Assistant Professor, Stony Brook, 2015-2022
• Sophie and Tycho Brahe Fellow, Dark Cosmology Center, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2012-2015
• Post-doctoral scholar, Stanford, 2007-2015
• PhD:  Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and LMU Munich, 2007

 

Research Statement:
My research interests lie mainly in observational cosmology, i.e. precision measurements of the structure and geometry of the Universe in order to determine the properties of dark energy and dark matter, the two mysterious components which together make up 95%of the Universe, but whose nature remains unknown.  In particular, I work on cosmology with galaxy clusters, the largest objects in the Universe, and on using weak gravitational lensing to measure cluster masses.  I was the junior lead of the Weighing the Giants project, which measured accurate weak-lensing masses for 51 clusters selected from the ROSAT All-Sky Survey, and incorporated these into a Hierarchical Bayesian Model to yield some of the most precise constraints on dark energy at that time.  I also consulted on cluster cosmology analyses with the South Pole Telescope, the Dark Energy Survey, and the eROSITA satellite.  My current main focus is towards the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), to be conducted at the newly constructed NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory.  Rubin will generate the widest, deepest image of the night sky yet, and in the process deliver Weighing the Giants-like data for all the clusters in the southern sky - a treasure trove for cluster cosmology and much, much more.  In preparation for LSST, my group is working on the impact of cluster triaxiality and orientation bias on cluster observables, as well as the impacts of galaxy blending in ground-based imaging.  I also have an interest in galaxy evolution, and in particular, the properties of the galaxies at the very center of clusters, the Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs).

  

professional Activities:

• Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC), a US Federal Advisory Committee which advises NSF, DOE and NASA on the national program in astronomy and astrophysics
• LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC), a multi-national collaboration (> 1200 members from 28 countries) which has the aim to measure the properties of dark energy and dark matter from LSST data:
• Builder status
• Technical Coordinator (part of the Management Team) 2025 - 2027
• Deputy Technical Coordinator (part of the Management Team) 2023 - 2025
• Convener of Clusters working group 2016-2019
• Collaboration Council member, 2015-2017, 2018-2020 and 2021-2023
• Membership Committee, 2014-2017
• Rubin Users Committee
• User Panel for the Euclid NASA Science Center at IPAC
• Definition committee for the High Latitude Wide Area Survey, a 520-day core community survey to be conducted by the Nancy G. Roman Space Telescope