French astrophysicist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Daniel Pomarède (born October 3, 1971) is a staff scientist at the Institute of Research into the Fundamental Laws of the Universe, CEA Paris-Saclay University. He co-discovered Laniakea, our home supercluster of galaxies, and Ho'oleilana, a spherical shell-like structure 1 billion light-years in diameter found in the distribution of galaxies, possibly the remnant of a Baryon Acoustic Oscillation. Specialized in data visualization and cosmography, a branch of cosmology dedicated to mapping the Universe, he also co-authored the discoveries of the Dipole Repeller and of the Cold Spot Repeller, two large influential cosmic voids, and the discovery of the South Pole Wall, a large-scale structure located in the direction of the south celestial pole beyond the southern frontiers of Laniakea.
Daniel Pomarède | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 3, 1971 |
| Nationality | French |
| Education | Ph.D in particle physics and cosmology |
| Known for | Laniakea Supercluster, Ho'oleilana, South Pole Wall, Dipole Repeller |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics |
| Institutions | CEA Paris-Saclay University |
Daniel Pomarède is science editor of Galaxy Science Fiction[1][2] and If (magazine).[3][4]
Daniel Pomarède graduated from the Interuniversity Magister degree in Physics of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris and Paris Universities (1991-1994), training in diverse research projects: experimental atomic physics in the group led by Marie-Anne Bouchiat at Kastler–Brossel Laboratory, waveguide optics at the Laser Research Group, University of Manchester, supersymmetry at CEA Theoretical Physics Department in Saclay.[5]
He served overseas as a national service scientific cooperant at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and got a Master of Science degree from the University of South Carolina, contributing to the preparation and analysis of nuclear physics experiments on the spin structure of the nucleon.[6]
In 1999, he completed his Ph.D. in particle physics and cosmology at the Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire des Hautes Energies at Ecole Polytechnique with a thesis on the search for cosmological antimatter in TeV cosmic rays, using the 10m Imaging Atmospheric Cerenkov Telescope at the F.L. Whipple Observatory in Arizona.[7][8] He then went on postdoctoral positions at CEA Service de Physique des Particules in Saclay and at the Physics Department of the University of Rome, La Sapienza, to work on the preparation of the ATLAS Experiment at CERN.[9] Back in Saclay, he co-founded in 2005 the COAST Computational Astrophysics Program dedicated to supercomputer simulations in astronomy, in the context of which he developed the SDvision Saclay Data Visualization software.[10] As of 2010 he is applying these data visualization and analysis techniques in the field of cosmography.[11][12][13][14][15]
Daniel Pomarède co-authored several papers in the field of cosmography, the mapping of large-scale matter distribution and kinematics of the observable universe, with the following most significant discoveries:
Cosmography studies published in scientific journals offer maps not only in the form of standard figures, but also in the form of extensive videos and interactive visualizations. Intended primarily for the specialists in the field of cosmology, these video maps turned out to be of interest to the general public.
A collection of such products developed by Pomarède and fellow co-authors aggregated approximately one million views on platforms such as Vimeo, YouTube and Sketchfab:
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