Cosmologist J. Colin Hill Awarded Sloan Research Fellowship

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded one of its prestigious research fellowships to cosmologist J. Colin Hill. The fellowship “recognizes and rewards outstanding early-career faculty who have the potential to revolutionize their fields of study,” according to the program’s website.

Hill is an assistant professor at Columbia University and an associate research scientist at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics. His research analyzes cosmological data for evidence of new physics and to better understand the processes that shape the universe’s structure. Of particular focus is his work on leftover heat from the early days of the cosmos, called the cosmic microwave background. He is a member of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, Simons Observatory and CMB-S4 collaborations.

As an undergraduate, Hill studied physics and mathematics and MIT. He went on to study mathematics at the University of Cambridge before receiving his Ph.D. in astrophysical sciences from Princeton University in 2014. Hill previously was a Junior Fellow of the Simons Society of Fellows and has received numerous awards, including a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the R.A. Watchman Prize for Part III Mathematics, MIT’s Barrett Award for Research in Astrophysics and MIT’s Orloff Award for Service in Physics.