Matias Zaldarriaga

Matias Zaldarriaga (born 1971 in Buenos Aires ) is an Argentine astrophysicist concerned with cosmology and in particular the cosmic background radiation ( CMB).

Zaldarriaga studied at the University of Buenos Aires with the physics degree ( licentiate ) in 1994 and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Ph.D. in 1998. 1996 he received the Barrett price of MIT for Astrophysics and 1998 he was a Hubble Fellow. As a post-doctoral researcher from 1998 to 2001 was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, where he Keck Visiting Associate in cosmology was 2001/ 02. 2001 to 2002 he was Assistant Professor at New York University. In 2003 he became associate professor at Harvard University, where he became in 2004 professor of physics and astronomy. Since 2009 he is Professor of Astrophysics at the Institute for Advanced Study.

He is known for detailed studies of the CMB, in which he seeks to physical processes in the early universe for clues. He wrote with the Slovenian Uros Seljak astrophysicist (Professor at Berkeley ), the software now widely used CMBFAST to calculate the anisotropy of the CMB for any cosmological parameters. He took advantage of gravitational lensing and the observation of the polarization of the CMB to the distribution otherwise non-visible matter in the universe to maintain that influence the light propagation of the CMB on the way to the observer. He suggested that by observing the variation of the CMB with respect to the wavelength of 21 cm ( the characteristic HI- line of neutral hydrogen in intergalactic space ) to obtain information on the state of the cosmos before the formation and the time of formation of the first stars. He is in pursuit of this observation program involved with colleagues in Princeton in several international programs such as Planck space telescope, Lofar, MWA, JWST.

In 2005 he received the Gribov Medal. In 2006 he was MacArthur Fellow. In 2003 he was awarded the Helen B. Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society for young astronomers. 2001 he was a Packard Fellow and Sloan Fellow in 2004.