Prof. Dr. Julio Fernando Navarro

Profile

Academic positionFull Professor
Research fieldsAstrophysics
KeywordsAstrophysics, Cosmology, Galaxy Formation, Dark Matter

Current contact address

CountryCanada
CityVictoria
InstitutionUniversity of Victoria
InstituteDepartment of Physics and Astronomy

Host during sponsorship

Prof. Dr. Simon D.M. WhiteMax-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Garching
Prof. Dr. Volker SpringelMax-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, Garching
Start of initial sponsorship01/09/2004

Programme(s)

2003Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award Programme

Nominator's project description

Professor Navarro uses supercomputers to study the formation of galaxies and galaxy clusters. His simulations of universes where the predominant form of matter is a new elementary particle, so-called Cold Dark Matter, showed how the observed structure of spiral galaxies constrains their formation. He also showed that all dark matter dominated objects should have a similar "universal" structure. This is one of the most striking and most cited results of the last decade, and provides powerful tests of the standard paradigm for cosmic structure formation. A stay in Germany will allow Professor Navarro and his European collaborators to complete many of these tests.