Risa Wechsler

Risa Wechsler is the Director of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology and a Professor of Physics at Stanford and of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Her research combines large cosmological simulations and modeling with the biggest and most precise maps of the universe to model and measure cosmic structure, understand the physics of galaxy formation, and elucidate the nature of dark matter and dark energy. She has played leadership roles in several of these very large surveys, including the Dark Energy Survey, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument and the Vera Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time.

Wechsler received an S.B. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and her Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has served on advisory committees for the National Academy of Sciences, the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics. In 2022 she was named the Distinguished Alumna for UCSC’s Physical and Biological Sciences Division, and she is currently the Gregory Amadon Family University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. She is passionate about broadening access to physics and astronomy and engaging the public with scientific discovery and has written about and discussed science in numerous public venues, including TED, Teen Vogue, and the BBC. She has been coming to the Aspen Center for Physics since her beginning postdoc years and currently serves on the Board of Trustees.

Website: Risawechsler.com