The University of Cincinnati Physics Department is hosting the second annual Ohio Cosmic Connections Workshop on May 4 and 5, 2026. The purpose of this workshop is to build connections between cosmology researchers at Ohio universities, including Ohio State, Ohio University, and University of Cincinnati. Junior scientists, including postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates, are highly encouraged to attend and present their work!
Dates: May 4–5, 2026.
Location: University of Cincinnati, Braunstein Hall room 325. Parking is available for $10/day in the Woodside or Campus Green parking garages.
Questions? Contact Jessica Muir (muirjc-at-ucmail.uc.edu) or Colin Bischoff (bischocn-at-ucmail.uc.edu)
Meeting Agenda
| Monday, May 4 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:30 | Breakfast & coffee (Geology/Physics atrium) | ||
| 10:30 | Meeting kickoff | 10:30 | Welcome |
| 10:40 | Cosmology group overviews | ||
| 11:00 | Presentations | 11:00 | Lightning talks round 1: Smit Palbhatkar, Lydia James, Helen Meskhidze, Damien Cherouvrier, Anning Gao, Yuyu Wang, Ashley Ross, Douglas Clowe, Pankaj Karna |
| 11:30 | Molly Wolfson, “Constraining Reionization with the z > 5 Lyman-α forest power spectrum” | ||
| 11:45 | Michael Rashkovetskyi, “Clustering of DESI galaxies split by thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect” | ||
| 12:00 | Lunch (Geology/Physics atrium) | ||
| 1:30 | Presentations | 1:30 | Lightning talks round 2: Jahmour Givans, Sakshi Gupta, Ferzem Khan, Samuel Bringman, Chris Hirata, Erik Zaborowski |
| 2:00 | Atlas Guyser, “Calculation of Angular Power Spectra using Non-Limber Integration for Ωk ≠ 0” | ||
| 2:15 | Nick Sanders, “Unified Tracer Analysis of DESI DR2 BAO” | ||
| 2:30 | Break | ||
| 3:00 | Survey plans & status | 3:00 | Klaus Honscheid and Hee-Jong Seo, “Survey status: DESI and DESI-II” |
| 3:20 | Jessie Muir, “Survey status: DES and LSST” | ||
| 3:40 | Jahmour Givans, “Survey status: Roman Space Telescope” | ||
| 4:00 | Colin Bischoff, “Survey status: South Pole Observatory” | ||
| 5:00 | Cincinnati Observatory Tour (∼1 hour) | ||
| Tuesday, May 5 | |||
| 8:30 | Breakfast & coffee (Geology/Physics atrium) | ||
| 9:00 | Discussion: evolving dark energy results | 9:00 | Erik Zabrowski, “Talk on DESI results” |
| 9:30 | Sujeong Lee, “Evolving dark energy with the Dark Energy Survey Year 6 data” | ||
| 10:00 | Discussion | ||
| 10:20 | Break | ||
| 11:00 | Presentations | 11:00 | Xinyi Chen, “Improving DESI BAO measurement with hybrid reconstruction” |
| 11:15 | Nihar Dalal, “Weak Lensing Systematics for Roman and Beyond” | ||
| 11:30 | Manon Ramel, “Probabilistic characterization of blending with LSST and application to cluster lensing cosmology” | ||
| 11:45 | Hunter Martin, “Measuring the Weak Gravitational Lensing from Cosmic Voids” | ||
| 12:00 | Lunch (Geology/Physics atrium) | ||
| 1:00 | Presentations | 1:00 | Lightning talks round 3: Joshua Tiju |
| 1:15 | Jaide Swanson, “Fiducial Cosmology test for the DESI DR2 2pt+3pt Full Shape Analysis” | ||
| 1:30 | Steven Rieck, “Seeking Optimal Nonlinear Scale Cuts for Beyond-ΛCDM Galaxy Clustering and Weak Lensing Analyses” | ||
| 1:45 | Alberto J. Rosado Marin, “Local primordial non-Gaussianity using cross-correlations of DESI tracers” | ||
| 2:00 | Break | ||
| 2:15 | Discussion session | Theme: the state of cosmology (in Ohio and more broadly!) | |
| 3:30 | Closing | ||
| 4:00 | End of workshop | ||
Participants
- Matthew Bayliss (UC)
- Colin Bischoff (UC)
- Samuel Bringman (OU)
- Xinyi Chen (OSU)
- Damien Cherouvrier (UC)
- Douglas Clowe (OU)
- Nihar Dalal (OSU)
- Anning Gao (OSU)
- Arshia Ghasemi (UC)
- Jahmour Givans (UC)
- Sakshi Gupta (UC)
- Atlas Guyser (UC)
- Chris Hirata (OSU)
- Klaus Honscheid (OSU)
- Lydia James (UC)
- Pankaj Karna (OU)
- Ferzem Khan (OU)
- Katherine Laliotis (OSU)
- Sujeong Lee (OU)
- Hunter Martin (UC)
- Helen Meskhidze (UC)
- Jessie Muir (UC)
- Sohini Pal (UC)
- Smit Palbhatkar (UC)
- Manon Ramel (UC)
- Michael Rashkovetskyi (OSU)
- Steven Rieck (UC)
- Alberto J. Rosado Marin (OU)
- Ashley Ross (OSU)
- Nick Sanders (OU)
- Hee-Jong Seo (OU)
- Peter Suranyi (UC)
- Jaide Swanson (OU)
- Joshua Tiju (UC)
- Yuyu Wang (OU)
- Rohana Wijewardhana (UC)
- Molly Wolfson (OSU)
- Erik Zaborowski (OSU)
Hotels near campus
- Fairfield Inn and Suites, Cincinnati Uptown, $150/night.
- Hampton Inn and Suites, Cincinnati Uptown, $150/night.
- The Graduate Hotel Cincinnati, $170/night.
Below is a map of the area around campus, showing these three hotels. The meeting location is in Braunstein Hall (see yellow marker).
From downtown Cincinnati, it is about a 10 minute drive (or easy bus ride) to campus.
