Assistant Professor
Francis-Yan Cyr-Racine |
Prof. Cyr-Racine joined UNM in 2019. Before coming to UNM, Cyr-Racine was a postdoctoral fellow in the High-energy theory group of Harvard University , and before that, a W.M. Keck Institute for Space Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and at the California Institute of Technology. |
Postdoctoral Fellow
David Camarena |
David Camarena joined the Particle Cosmology research group at UNM in 2022 as a Postdoctoral Fellow. He completed his PhD in the same year at the PPGCosmo program, based at the Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo in Brazil, under the supervision of Prof. Valerio Marra. His research primarily lies at the intersection of theoretical physics and data analysis. He has experience in topics such as inhomogeneous cosmologies and the Hubble tension. At UNM, his research focuses on exploring non-standard neutrino interactions through the lens of cosmological data. |
Graduate Student
Birendra Dhanasingham |
Birendra started at UNM in 2018 and joined Cyr-Racine's group in Fall 2019. Before that, he earned his Bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Right now, he is exploring dark matter microphysics using strong gravitational lensing. His research interests cover understanding dark matter through astrophysical observables, studying black holes, applying machine learning methods to astrophysics and cosmology, and exploring complex adaptive systems. Besides research, he is a bookworm, melophile, and gym rat. |
Graduate Student Kylar
Greene |
Kylar Greene embarked on his PhD journey in physics at UNM in 2019, delving into the intriguing Hubble tension. His research curiosity has since expanded to encompass cosmological tensions, dark sector model building, Beyond Standard Model (BSM) physics, and cosmic inflation. Currently, he's enriching his research experience at Fermilab in Chicago, courtesy of a SCGSR award, where he's exploring primordial non-Gaussianities and potential interactions between the visible and dark sectors beyond gravitational forces. Outside the office, Kylar's creativity finds expression through synthesizer music, miniature model painting, and tabletop games. |
Graduate Student
Soumyodipta Karmakar |
Soumyodipta Karmakar has been pursuing PhD in Physics at The University of New Mexico since Fall 2021. His primary areas of interest in research are theoretical cosmology, astrophysics, dark matter (DM), and cosmological simulations. Mr. Karmakar is investigating the 'cold' and 'collisionless' nature of DM with the Milky Way (MW)-like satellite galaxies. He is currently working on a semi-analytic forward model to simulate MW-like satellites, based on the abundance of low-mass DM halos and their DM density distribution. The model he aims to implement may be employed to forecast future DM constraints from the upcoming observations on small astrophysical scales. He has the ability to work in a group and has strong scientific skills in Python and High-Performance Computing. Mr. Karmakar is also a LSST-DA Data Science Fellow. During his leisure time, he enjoys cooking, listening to Indian classical music, volunteering for social activities, and playing various types of sports. |
Graduate Student John
Houghteling |
John Houghteling came to UNM in 2023 to begin his PhD in physics under Prof. Cyr-Racine. His broad interests lie in using computational methods to investigate the cosmological impact of novel ideas in particle physics, with new interactions in the neutrino sector currently being the focus of his research. Before coming to Albuquerque, John earned bachelor’s degrees in Physics and Mathematics from The University of Texas at Austin. In addition to his academic pursuits, John enjoys hiking, rock climbing, and tabletop roleplaying games. |
Graduate Student
Xiaoxuan Li |
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Undergraduate Student
Ethan Sloan |
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Undergraduate Student
Fernando Garcia |
Quick bio: - 3rd year (international, from México) undergraduate student. - Doing Physics and (Pure) Mathematics at UNM - Currently working on non-standard Neutrino interactions. - Outside of research and courses: Electric guitar, Photography, and scale modeling. - Link to website: https://fernando-garcia-cortez.github.io/ |
Undergraduate Student
Max Schmidt |
Max Schmidt is in his third year of undergrad in Physics at the University of Heidelberg, Germany . He is currently on exchange at the University of New Mexico. His education has sparked an ongoing interest in theoretical astrophysics, which led him to joining Cyr-Racine's Research Group in Fall of 2023. His current research is centered around the effects of Degeneracy on the Gravothermal Collapse of Self-Interacting Dark Matter Halos. In his free time he loves to travel, hike, and to watch a good movie. |