Yao-Yuan Mao portrait
  • Assistant Professor, Physics And Astronomy

Research Summary

My research focuses on the nature of dark matter, galaxy formation physics, and the uniqueness of our own Milky Way. In particular, I use astronomical surveys and numerical simulations to study low-mass galaxies in the nearby Universe, modeling the relation between these galaxies and their host dark matter halos to learn about the underlying dark structures.

Education

  • Ph.D., Physics, Stanford University
  • B.S., Physics, National Taiwan University

Biography

I am an Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Utah.  Before I joined the U in 2022, I conducted postdoctoral research as a Langley Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh from 2016 to 2019, and as a NASA Einstein Fellow at Rutgers University from 2019 to 2022.  I received my Ph.D. in Physics from Stanford University in 2016, and my B.S. in Physics from National Taiwan University in 2009.  I was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan.

Name in native alphabet

茅耀元