Hello, I'm Dillon.


Cosmologist. Astrophysicist. Data Enthusiast.


Hello, that's me!


I'm a 2019 NASA Einstein Fellow and I'm now at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian. I'm driven to understand the dynamics of the cosmos and the nature of Dark Energy and Dark Matter.

I work with extremely large datasets on a regular basis and imploy state of the art machine learning, statistical tools, and image analysis to make statements about the universe.

I am also passionate about analysis, vizualization, and manipulation of large datasets across other disciplines as well as teaching others to do the same. 







Research Interests

Dark Energy and Dark Matter

I'm leading the two largest Type Ia Supernova datasets to date, Pantheon+ and the Dark Energy Survey. Type Ia SNe allow us to measure cosmological parameters including the equation of state for dark energy. Our results are in agreement with a cosmological constant and make a significant leap forward in supernova analysis and data quality. The next steps are 1) to measure the evolution of dark energy and 2) to measure better both the amount of dark matter in the universe and also its "clumpyness". All of these have the potential to shed insight on the interplay between fundamental components of the universe and will allow us to both constrain existing models for the universe and inspire us to come up with new ones!

Growth Of Structure
Supernova Physics

Redshift surveys such as DESI have the ability to constrain the growth of structure and general relativity, but in the nearby universe they are limited by the number of galaxies. However when this information is combined with external information on distance, constraints can be 2x better! Type Ia Supernovae in this case provide the best distances at a wide range of redshifts and will play a central role in this discussion in the coming decade.

Gravitational Wave Cosmology

As part of the Dark Energy Survey Gravitational Wave (DESGW) followup team, I have optimized use of the Dark Energy Camera for detection of GW Sources. We were co-discoveres of the very first ever binary neutron star merger that was initially "heard" by LIGO and then seen visually shortly thereafter. With objects like these we have the unique oppotunity to make an independent measurement of the ever-controversial Hubble Constant (expansion rate of the universe today) by using its inferred distance from the masses of the neutron stars and from its discovered redshift (recession velocity).

Large Datasets and Machine Learning

As part of the Dark Energy Survey database we work with over 4 petabytes of images. Data reduction, manipulation, transfer, and precision anlysis using state of the art statistical tools is of utmost importance to achieve sound scientific results. We develop custom algorithims for simulating and making measurements of the astrophysical data and we utilize high performance computing systems to execute them. I alo employ a number of machine learning algorithms in my daily work, for example, neural networks to perform object classification and detection. But also for fun I really enjoy extendeding neural networks and other machine learning algorithms on datasets outside of astrophysics.

Current Science Teams!

Dark Energy Survey

I have the great pleasure of serving as the DES 5 Year Photometric SN Ia Cosmologicl Analyis Coordinator. We are working to publish our final cosmological analysis of the largest dataset ever acquired from a single telescope (~1500 SNe).

Pantheon+
SH0ES

The Pantheon+ team is a small team of supernova cosmologists that have compiled the state of the art dataset of SNe Ia for cosmology and have produced the current best constraints dark energy properties and that have been used in analyses such as the Planck 2018 cosmology papers. Pantheon+ is the largest compilation of SNe and has placed the best constraints on cosmology of any sample to date. The SNe Ia covering the widest span in redshift of any dataset in cosmology today (0.001


DESI

I have the pleasure of serving in DESI as the Chair of Time Domain and Low Redshift Cosmology working group. We are working to address the limitations of DESI at low redshift by supplementing with additional distance estimates. We are also targeting historical SN galaxies to ensure a homogenous redshift sample.

DEBASS

I am the PI of a new long term program on the Dark Energy Camera on the CTIO 4m telescope to collect more than 500 low redshift SNe Ia over 3 years. Our small group (for now) calls ourselves the Dark Energy Bedrock All Sky Supernovae (DEBASS) team and our goal is to measure dark matter and sigma8 (clumpyness) to unprecedented precision from a unique sample of SNe Ia across the southern sky. We will also be a precursor to the LSST (located one mountaintop over!) and complement their dataset with a low redshift anchor for the Hubble Diagram and measuremnts of cosmic acceleration.

Recent Works

See details → Pantheon+ Cosmology

See details → SH0ES Result

See details → Pantheon+ Sample

See details → Binning is Sinning

See details → It's Dust!

See details → Supernova Cosmology

See details → DES-SN3YR Data Release

See details → Penn Apps 3rd place: eyehud

See details → H0 Measurement from the First Binary Neutron Star

See details → Co-Discovery of the First Binary Neutron Star

In The News

See details → Gizmodo

See details → Cover of CNET

See details → CfA Press

See details → Big Think

See details → Science News

See details → Big Data Bootcamp

See details → NASA Einstein Fellowship

See details → Discovery of the First Binary Neutron Star

See details → Racing Strategy

Videos

See details → CosmoVerse Seminar

See details → Cosmology Talks

See details → SH0ES Webinar

See details → Cosmology Talks

See details → KITP

See details → Sao Paulo

See details → Google Talk

Itinerary & Past Talks

Dec 7th, 2022
Seminar
Remote
CosmoVerse

Nov 3rd, 2022
Colloquium
Remote
University of Michigan

Jul 29th, 2022
Invited Speaker
Remote
Boom! Conference

Jun 13th, 2022
Colloquium
London, England
Lancaster University

Mar 7th, 2022
Colloquium
SLAC
Stanford University

Jan 26th, 2022
Colloquium
Remote
Helsinki Institute of Physics

Nov 10th, 2021
Colloquium
Honolulu, Hawaii
UH Institute for Astronomy

Oct 29th, 2021
Talk
remote
NHFP Symposium

Apr 20th, 2021
Seminar
remote
LSST DESC

Jan 14th, 2021
LSST Special Session
remote
American Astronomical Society

Nov 13th, 2020
Contributed Talk
remote
Royal Astronomical Society

Sep 21st, 2020
NHFP Symposium
remote
NASA (remote)

May 20th, 2020
Colloquium
remote
Stockholm University

May 18th, 2020
Plenery
remote
DES Collab. Mtg.

March 12th, 2020
Invited Speaker
World Summit
Guadeloupe Islands

Feb 6th, 2020
Colloquium
Brandeis Univ.
Waltham, MA

Oct 15th, 2019
Google
Press Event
New York, NY

Oct 4th, 2019
Workshop
KICP UChicago
Chicago, IL

Sep 19th, 2019
Public Talk
Astronomy on Tap
Philadelphia, PA

July 17th, 2019
Invited Speaker
KITP UCSB
Santa Barbara, CA

May 14th, 2019
Thesis Defense
UPenn
Philadelphia, PA

April 25th, 2019
NOVA Science Cafe
Black Sheep Pub
Philadelphia, PA

April 12, 2019
Colloquium
CMU/Pitt Physics Seminar
Pittsburgh, PA

March 14th, 2019
Workshop
Universites Paris
Paris, France

March 8th, 2019
Colloquium @ Service de Physique Théorique @ ULB
Brussels, Belgium

Feb 26th, 2019
Seminar @ American Museum
of Natural History
New York, NY

Feb 11th, 2019
Colloquium
Johns Hopkins/STSCi
Baltimore, MD

Dec 17th, 2018
Plenary @ South American Workshop on
Cosmology in the LSST Era
Sao Paulo, Brazil

August 14th, 2018
Public Talk
Night Skies @ Franklin Institute
Philadelphia, PA

May 22nd, 2018
Invited DES-GW Talk
DES Community Science Workshop
Tucson, AZ

May 21st, 2018
Invited DES-SN Talk
DES Community Science Workshop
Tucson, AZ

May 15th, 2018
Public Talk
Astronomy on Tap
College Station, TX

April 15th, 2018
Talk
APS April DES Session J15
Columbus, OH

Februrary 2nd, 2018
Colloquium
Fermilab Wine and Cheese
Batavia, IL

Jan 10th, 2018
Talk
AAS #231 DES Special Session
Washington, DC

April 8th, 2016
2 Public Talks
Franklin Institute Planetarium
Philadelphia, PA

Supported By

I also love...



Jazz Saxophone


When I'm not knee deep in data or measuring the fate of the universe, I love to play jazz saxophone. I have played at venues across the east coast with bands of the likes of the Monophonics, Black Masala, Swift Technique, The Royal Noise, Hambone Relay and more.  


Contact


dillon.brout (at) cfa.harvard.edu

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CV


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