SEMINAR 2024
Cosmology: A Golden Era
| Speaker | Yin-Zhe Ma, Stellenbosch University, South Africa |
| Date/Time | Tuesday, 19 Nov, 10AM |
| Location | Conference room: S11-02-07 |
| Host | A/Prof Phil Chan |
Abstract
Cosmology, the understanding of the evolution of entire Universe, has progressed very fast in the past several decades with the advances of modern telescopes. I will give a brief overview of the modern cosmology of the last century and highlight its phenomenal successes and distinctive challenges. I will explain how and why the measurements of cosmic microwave background radiation, the relics of the primordial elements, and the galaxy distribution on large scales can improve our understanding of the hot big bang. Then I will also discuss its distinctive challenges, present the observational frontiers for this (next) decade of cosmology, highlighting where the new physics may possibly emerge.
Biography
Professor Yin-Zhe Ma obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Nanjing University, a master’s degree from the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (supervisor: Prof. Rong-Gen Cai), and a Ph.D. degree in Astronomy from the University of Cambridge (supervisor: Prof. George Efstathiou FRS). He conducted CITA National Fellowship at the University of British Columbia Canada and a research associate at the University of Manchester, and then moved to the University of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa as a senior lecturer (2015) and then an associate professor (2018) and a full professor (2021). In 2023, he moved to Stellenbosch University as a full professor and the founding head of astrophysics division in physics department. He chaired the NAOC-UKZN Computational Astrophysics Centre and the Chinese-South African Forum of Astronomy. He is also an adjunct professor at Purple Mountain Observatory and National Astronomical Observatory China during 2017-2021. In 2024, he is appointed as the Stellenbosch-Groningen Joint Research Chair of Astronomy.
His research focuses on observational and theoretical cosmology aimed at understanding the fundamental laws of the Universe and uncovering the nature of dark energy and dark matter. He is currently a core member of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) Science Working group, the Planck science team, Hydrogen Epoch Reionization Array (HERA), and the CMB Stage-4 experiment and LSST (Vera C. Rubin Observatory). With the Planck science team, he was awarded the 2018 “Gruber Cosmology Prize” by the IAU. He has published over 130 papers, with total citations exceeding 29000, h-index 47. He was awarded the NSFC Oversea Scholar grant and several South Africa National Research Foundation grants. He was elected to the Academy of Science of South Africa in 2022.