Rachel Mandelbaum
Professor and Interim Department Head
Astrophysics & Cosmology
Wean Hall 7327
Education & Professional Experience
Ph.D.: Princeton University (2006)
Honors and Awards:
Simons Investigator in Astrophysics (2019)
Falco-DeBenedetti Career Development Professor (2013)
Alfred P. Sloan Fellow (2013)
DOE Early Career Award (2012)
AAS Annie Jump Cannon Prize (2011)
Hubble Fellow (2006)
Kusaka Memorial Prize, Princeton University (2000)
Interim Department Head, Carnegie Mellon University, 2024–
Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, 2019–
Indefinite Tenure, Carnegie Mellon University, 2016
Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, 2014–2019
Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, 2011–14
Visiting Associate Research Scholar, Princeton University, 2011–12
Post-doctoral Research: Princeton University, 2009–11
Post-doctoral Research: Institute for Advanced Study, 2006–09
Research Interests
My research interests are predominantly in the areas of observational cosmology and galaxy studies. This work includes the use of weak gravitational lensing and other analysis techniques, with projects that range from development of improved data analysis methods, to actual application of such methods to existing data. Currently, I am focusing on data from the Hyper-SuprimeCam (HSC) survey, and am working on upcoming surveys including the Rubin Observatory LSST and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. I am an active member of the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration, for which I served as Spokesperson from 2019-2021, and am now the lead at CMU of the LINCC Frameworks Initiative (press release).
Recent Publications
Li, X., Mandelbaum, R., Jarvis, M., Li, Y., Park, A., and Zhang, T. (2024). A differentiable perturbation-based weak lensing shear estimator. Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc., 527(4):10388–10396 http://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad3895
Li, X. et al. (2023). Hyper Suprime-Cam Year 3 results: Cosmology from cosmic shear two-point correlation functions. Phys. Rev. D, 108(12):123518 http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.108.123518
Zhang, T. et al. (2023b). A general framework for removing point-spread function additive systematics in cosmological weak lensing analysis. Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc., 525(2):2441–2471 http://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad1801
Campos, A., Samuroff, S., and Mandelbaum, R. (2023). An empirical approach to model selection: weak lensing and intrinsic alignments. Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc., 525(2):1885–1901 http://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad2213
Rau, M. M. et al. (2023). Weak lensing tomographic redshift distribution inference for the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program three-year shape catalogue. Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc., 524(4):5109–5131 http://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad1962
Samuroff, S., Mandelbaum, R., et al. (2023). The Dark Energy Survey Year 3 and eBOSS: constraining galaxy intrinsic alignments across luminosity and colour space. Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc., 524(2):2195–2223 http://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad2013
Troxel, M. A. et al. (2023). A joint Roman Space Telescope and Rubin Observatory synthetic wide-field imaging survey. Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc., 522(2):2801–2820 http://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad664
Li, X. and Mandelbaum, R. (2023). Analytical weak-lensing shear responses of galaxy properties and galaxy detection. Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc., 521(4):4904–4926 http://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad890
Mandelbaum, R., Jarvis, M., Lupton, R. H., Bosch, J., Kannawadi, A., Murphy, M. D., Zhang, T., and LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration (2023). PSFs of coadded images. The Open Journal of Astrophysics, 6:5 http://doi.org/10.21105/astro.2209.09253
Jagvaral, Y., Singh, S., and Mandelbaum, R. (2022e). Intrinsic alignments of bulges and discs. Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc., 514(1):1021–1033 http://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac1424
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ORCID Researcher ID