The Power Plant

This Sunday Scene with Renée Hložek will combine her studies in cosmology with the celestial movements of Abdelkader Benchamma’s work. Hložek’s research focuses on theoretical cosmology and statistical methods in cosmology. Intersecting science and art, this will be an engaging talk that will take audiences to the edges of the universe!

Renée Hložek is an Associate Professor at the Dunlap Institute and the David A. Dunlap Department for Astronomy and Astrophysics. She studies the Universe from the earliest moments to the far future. Her work uses statistical methods and precise observations to answer cosmic questions. She makes measurements of both visible and microwave light with telescopes high in the deserts of northern Chile, and use these measurements to learn about the fundamental building blocks of nature. Hložek is part of a group of scientists who will use the ambitious new Vera C. Rubin telescope to measure the signals from many thousands of supernovae in order to learn about the enigmatic "dark energy" driving the acceleration of the universe. She leads the Dark Energy Science Collaboration within Rubin and develops new statistical techniques to use the telescope data wisely in the hunt to understand this dark energy. These signals encode the eventual fate of the universe.