Research Group

Nathaniel Starkman

Postdoctoral Associate: Joined in 2024

Nathaniel is a computational astrophysicist and astrophysics open source developer. He combines theory and machine learning to study the nature of dark matter through the dynamics of star clusters orbiting galaxies, including our own. He holds a PhD from the University of Toronto and a Brinson Prize Fellowship at MIT.

Elliot Y. Davies

Postdoctoral Associate: Joined in 2025

Elliot is a dynamicist using theory, simulations, and machine learning to understand what stellar kinematics can tell us about the nature of dark matter. He specialises in the dynamics of the stellar halo, dark matter subhaloes, and the Galactic bar. He completed his PhD at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge.

Gonzalo Herrera

NTN Fellow: Joined in 2025

Gonzalo is a Neutrino Theory Network Fellow with a joint appointment at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and the Harvard Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology. He explores the frontier between particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology, working on learning fundamental physics from neutrino data and on elucidating the nature of dark matter through direct searches and multi-messenger observations.

Abdelaziz Hussein

PhD Student Joined in 2022

Abdelaziz is studying theoretical and computational astroparticle physics. He works on exploring the nature of dark matter (DM) through galactic dynamics. He is interested in realizing different DM models in simulations and identifying observables that can help us constrain different DM models.

Xiuyuan Zhang

PhD Student Joined in 2022

Xiuyuan is interested in the intersection of particle theory and astrophysics theory. Currently working on subhalo and its velocity distributions and on dark matter models from particle physics aspect.

Zeineb Mezghanni

PhD Student, joined in 2025

Zeineb works on N-body simulations of the Gaia Sausage-Enceladus (GSE) merger, comparing the predictions of different dark matter models against the observed structure of the Milky Way. She first joined the group as an MSRP student in 2023.

Xiaowei Ou

PhD Student, 2021–2025

After MIT: GECO/Cosmic AI Fellow at the University of Virginia. Thesis: “Understanding the Milky Way with Stars.”

Tri Nguyen

PhD Student, 2022–2024

After MIT: CIERA Fellow at Northwestern University. Thesis: “Decoding Dark Matter Halos through the lens of Machine Learning.”

Nora Shipp

Postdoctoral Associate: 2021-2023

After MIT: NSF Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University (2023–2024); Assistant Professor at the University of Washington.

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