Rachel Mandelbaum

Professor

Program

LINCC Frameworks
Institution

Carnegie Mellon University

Rachel Mandelbaum is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). She earned her PhD in physics from Princeton University, and was previously an associate research scholar and visiting associate research scholar for the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, and a Hubble Fellow for astrophysics at the Institute for Advanced Study. Her research interests are predominantly in the areas of observational cosmology and galaxy studies that reveal the nature of dark matter and dark energy, and the connection between dark matter and galaxies.

Her work includes the use of weak gravitational lensing and other analysis techniques, with projects that range from the development of improved data analysis methods, to application of such methods to existing data. In recent years she has dedicated significant effort towards the development of open source software packages for astronomical simulation and data analysis.

Currently, Mandelbaum is involved in analysis of data from the Hyper-SuprimeCam (HSC) survey, and is actively preparing for upcoming surveys including the Rubin Observatory LSST and the Nancy Gracy Roman Space Telescope. Her work on LSST is carried out within the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration and as co-lead of the LINCC Frameworks initiative. She has received the AAS Annie Jump Cannon Prize, the Department of Energy Early Career Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, a Simons Investigator Award, and was the Falco-DeBenedetti Career Development Professor in Physics at CMU.