Suchetha Cooray

Astrophysicist @ Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics & Cosmology (KIPAC), Stanford University

I am a KIPAC Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University. My research operates at the intersection of observational data, galaxy formation physics, cosmological theory, and artificial intelligence.

My primary interest is in decoding the “cosmic ecosystems” that drive galaxy formation and evolution across cosmic time. My work aims to reveal the complete lifecycle of galaxies—tracing their origins from density peaks of dark matter, through the complex interaction of their baryonic components, to their eventual cessation of star formation.

A complete model of galaxy formation requires solving physical scales that span at least 14 orders of magnitude—from black hole accretion disks to the cosmic large-scale structures—making it one of the hardest problems in astrophysics. I tackle this problem by combining numerical simulations and machine learning to build statistical models that link the earliest galaxies uncovered by JWST to the populations we observe at lower redshifts. With transformative extragalactic surveys like PFS, Euclid, Rubin LSST, SPHEREx, and Roman coming online, there has never been a better time to develop our theoretical models to extract meaningful constraints on galaxy formation physics.

Previously, I was a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and earned my doctorate at Nagoya University.

I will be starting as a Specially Appointed Assistant Professor (Research) at the Astronomical Institute, Tohoku University from September 2026.

My CV is here.