Adrian Bayer

2026 Regional Award Finalist — Post-Doc

Adrian Bayer

Current Position:
IAIFI Fellow and Perimeter Institute Fellow

Institution:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Perimeter Institute

Discipline:
Astrophysics & Cosmology

Recognized for: Pioneering cosmological simulations and interpretable machine learning methods that reveal hidden information about the Universe’s structure and evolution.

Areas of Research Interest and Expertise:
Machine Learning, Computational Cosmology

Previous Positions:

MSci, Imperial College London, United Kingdom (Advisor: Dr. Fay Dowker)
Master of Advanced Study, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
PhD, University of California, Berkeley, United States (Advisor: Dr. Uroš Seljak)
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Princeton University, United States
Flatiron Research Fellow, Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, United States

Research Summary:

The Universe’s most important clues about dark energy, neutrinos, and the Big Bang are hidden within the intricate structure of the cosmic web. Cosmologist Adrian Bayer develops machine learning frameworks that analyze the sky pixel by pixel, capturing information that traditional methods discard. Bayer demonstrated that the nonlinear cosmic web contains far more information than standard analyses reveal, and is building pioneering tools to extract it. By combining observations of galaxies, dark matter, gas, and the cosmic microwave background, Bayer aims to create a unified view of the sky and deliver the most precise measurements of our Universe to date.

“I am deeply honored to be recognized by the Blavatnik family, enabling me to continue my quest to understand our Universe by using AI to unify the sky, reveal hidden patterns in the cosmic web, and shed new light on its origins and evolution.”

Key Publications:

  1. A. E. Bayer, Y. Zhong, Z. Li, J. DeRose, Y. Feng, J. Liu. The HalfDome Multi-Survey Cosmological Simulations: N-body Simulations. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2025. 
  2. J. Sunseri, A. E. Bayer, J. Liu. The Power of the Cosmic Web. Physical Review D, 2025. 
  3. L. Parker, A. E. Bayer, U. Seljak. Initial Conditions from Galaxies: Machine-Learning Subgrid Correction to Standard Reconstruction. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2025. 
  4. A. E. Bayer, F. Villaescusa-Navarro, S. Sharief, R. Teyssier, L. H. Garrison, L. Perreault-Levasseur, G. L. Bryan, M. Gatti, E. Visbal. Field-Level Comparison and Robustness Analysis of Cosmological N-body Simulations. The Astrophysical Journal, 2025.

Other Honors:

2026  IAIFI Fellowship, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
2026  Perimeter Institute Fellowship, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics 
2023 Flatiron Research Fellowship, Simons Foundation 
2022  Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, University of California, Berkeley 
2018 The Berkeley Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley 
2017 Abdus Salam Undergraduate Prize, Imperial College London 
2017  Governors’ MSci Prize in Physics, Imperial College London 

In the Media:

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