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Zhilei Xu

Astrophysicist & Cosmologist

MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research

Interests

Welome to my website! I am Zhilei Xu (sound Link to pronounce my name).

I am an astrophysicist interested in studying the beginning and the evolution of the Universe, especially through observing the 21-cm signal and cosmic microwave background (CMB). In addition, I am also interested in the formation and evolution of galaxies and galaxy clusters. I am a member of the HERA collaboration in 21-cm and CLASS, SO, ACT, CMB-S4 collaborations in CMB.

Email: zhileixu@mit.edu

Website: https://sites.mit.edu/zhileixu

Bio

EDUCATION

  • Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, 2011 – 2017
    • Project: Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS)
    • Dissertation: Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS): Integration and Testing of CLASS at 40 GHz
  • B.S., University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), 2007 – 2011
    • With the highest honor — Guo Moruo Scholarship

APPOINTMENT

  • Affiliated Researcher, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2023 – Now
    • Project: Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA)
  • Postdoctoral Associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2020 – 2023
    • Project: Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA)
  • Postdoctoral scholar, University of Pennsylvania, 2017 – 2020
    • Project: Simons Observatory (SO), Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), CMB-S4

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

  • Reviewer for SPT-SLIM, 2022
  • Reviewer for NASA, 2021
  • CMB-S4 Workshop Scientific Organizing Committee (SOC) Member, 2020 – 2021
  • CMB-S4 Governing Board Member (Postdoc Representative), 2020 – 2021
  • Co-chair of the Simons Observatory (SO) Talks Committee, 2020 – now
  • Reviewer for ApJ, Nature (Sci. Rep.), JCAP, Universe, 2019 – now

PUBLIC OUTREACH

  • From RF Engineering to Observational Cosmology, Mount Diablo Astronomical Society, 2021
  • These Materials Could Make Science Fiction a Reality, New York Times, 2021
  • Metamaterial Tiles Boost Sensitivity of Large Telescopes, OSA, Penn Today, Physics World, 2021
  • ‘At the whim of the world’, Penn Today, 2020
  • How do we know the universe’s age?, Ask Space, 2019
  • In Search of Signals from the Early Universe, Penn Today, physics.org,2019

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