Simon Birrer, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in Stony Brook University’s College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) Early Career Research Program Award for $875,000.
This DoE award was established to support outstanding early career scientists at universities, national laboratories and office of science user facilities.
Birrer’s proposal was selected for his research entitled, “Probing Dark Energy with Strong Gravitational Lensing in the Era of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory,” to study the expansion history of the universe in partnership with the newly commissioned National Science Foundation (NSF) DoE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. This program award will fund this research for five years.
Birrer is studying the phenomena of strong gravitational lensing, caused when light is deflected due to gravity such that multiple images of the same source appear. The Rubin Observatory is looking to discover tens of thousands of such strong lensing systems, a number more than an order of magnitude larger than the currently known systems. This grant strengthens the leadership of Birrer’s group in an emerging field to tackle the nature of dark energy and dark matter.
To be eligible for this program award, researchers must be untenured, tenure-track assistant or associate professors at a U.S. academic institution or a full-time employee at a DOE national laboratory or office of science user facility who is within 10 years of having earned their doctorate degree. Awards to an institution of higher education will be approximately $875,000 over five years.
“At this time of continuing uncertainties and cuts in federal funding, it is exceptionally heart-warming to hear Simon is receiving a DoE Early Career Award, which is a defining moment of any junior faculty’s career as it represents highly selective recognition of not only the recipient’s accomplishments but also future potential,” said Chang Kee Jung, distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. “Simon’s research is in the exciting and growing field of astronomy that has the great potential for major discoveries with the newly constructed state-of-art observatory. He is dedicated to undergraduate education and early research involvements. The Department of Physics and Astronomy is lucky to have Simon as well as our other fantastic junior faculty members.”
“I am grateful for the support by the Department of Energy and am excited to be able to support my group to work with the newly commissioned NSF-DoE Vera C. Rubin Observatory,” said Birrer. “I hope that our efforts at Stony Brook contribute to gaining insights into our understanding of the Universe.”
Birrer joined Stony Brook University in January 2023. Previously, he served as a Kavli postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University and a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Birrer received his PhD, master’s and bachelor degrees in physics from ETH Zurich.
U.S. News & World Report recently announced that the Stony Brook University Department of Physics and Astronomy was ranked #39 globally and #21 nationally.