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Peter Lawrence Capak
Alma materUniversity of Hawaii at Manoa
University of British Columbia
Known forCosmology, Structure Formation, Dark Matter, Dark Energy Galaxy Evolution
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy, Machine Learning, Space Sciences
InstitutionsCalifornia Institute of Technology
Cosmic DAWN Center
WebsitePeter Capak research website

Peter Lawrence Capak is a staff scientist and member of the professional staff at the California Institute of Technology.[1] His research focuses on using physical modeling and advanced statistical methods including artificial intelligence and machine learning to extract information from very large multi-wavelength (hyper-spectral) data sets. He has primarily used this to study structure formation in the universe, cosmology, and the nature of dark matter[2] and dark energy. In 2017 and 2018, he was identified as one of the top 1% of cited researchers [3][4].

Early life and education

Capak grew up in a rural area[5] in Smithers, British Columbia, Canada, where he graduated from Smithers Secondary School. He received his bachelor of science in physics and astronomy with honors from the University of British Columbia in 1999[6]. He then earned a masters in astronomy in 2002, and a Ph.D. in astronomy in 2004 both from the University of Hawaii[7]. In his Ph.D. thesis, he focused on measuring the growth of structure and history of star formation in the universe using several data sets included the GOODS survey.

Scientific career

Capak is currently science lead of the SPHEREx[8] science center at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC), Caltech and a leading member of the NASA Euclid Science Center at IPAC. He previously was a member of the Spitzer Science Center where he lead the Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products pipeline team and the Spitzer Frontiers Field Initiative[9]. Before joining IPAC, he was a postdoctoral fellow on the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) and a graduate student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Capak joined Caltech, in 2004, to work on the COSMOS project where he lead the multi-wavelength data processing and analysis effort. As part of this work he developed a novel way of estimating redshifts from photometry (photometric redshifts) that accounted for the signal strength of weak lensing, enabling the first 3 dimensional map of dark matter.

In 2010, Capak took over leadership of the COSMOS collaboration which he lead until 2018. The COSMOS data set helped to develop the concept behind several major experiments to measure the properties of dark matter and dark energy including the Dark Universe Explorer, which was incorporated into the Euclid mission. Capak consulted [10] on the design of NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). He was also a co-investigator on the team that developed NASA’s SPHEREx mission.

Capak’s work has been featured in the media including his work on Abell 520, the Baby Boom Galaxy. He also discovered the most distant known cluster of galaxies [11][12] and carried out the first large study of the interstellar medium in the distant universe.[13][14]

References

  1. ^ "Peter Capak". IPAC. Retrieved 7 Aug 2019.
  2. ^ "Big Unknowns: what is dark matter? – Science Weekly podcast". The Guardian. 22 Nov 2016.
  3. ^ "2017 Highly Cited Researchers". Clarivate Analytics. Retrieved 9 Aug 2019.
  4. ^ "Highly Cited Researchers 2018". Web of Science Group. Retrieved 9 Aug 2019.
  5. ^ "Peter Capak". IPAC. Retrieved 7 Aug 2019.
  6. ^ "PHYSICS 449/ ASTR 449 THESIS". Physics Astronomy, University of British Columbia. Retrieved 7 Aug 2019.
  7. ^ "Alumni (alphabetical listing)". Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii. Retrieved 7 Aug 2019.
  8. ^ "SPHEREx Science Team". SPHEREx. Retrieved 7 Aug 2019.
  9. ^ "The Frontier Fields: where primordial galaxies lurk". Astronomy Now. 29 Sep 2016.
  10. ^ "Wide-Field InfrarRed Survey Telescope-Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets WFIRST-AFTA 2015 Report". 12 March 2015.
  11. ^ Clavin, Whitney (11 Jan 2011). "NASA Telescopes Help Identify Most Distant Galaxy Cluster". JPL NASA.
  12. ^ "A massive protocluster of galaxies at a redshift of z ≈ 5.3". Nature. 12 Jan 2011.
  13. ^ Choi, Charles (24 June 2015). "Ancient Carbon Haze Offers Clues to Galaxy Evolution". Space.com.
  14. ^ "Galaxies at redshifts 5 to 6 with systematically low dust content and high [C II] emission". Nature. 24 June 2015.


Category:American astronomers Category:Canadian astronomers Category:Czech astronomers Category:20th-century astronomers Category:Living people Category:20th-century American scientists Category:20th-century Canadian scientists

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