Harley Katz
Assistant Professor
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the College
Harley Katz’s research focuses on the formation of the first stars, galaxies, and black holes after the big bang. He develops and runs large computer simulations that model gravity, gas dynamics, magnetic fields, radiation, and chemistry to understand how the universe evolved from a hot distribution of hydrogen and helium to the complex set of astrophysical objects that we can see with telescopes today. His work makes direct predictions that are currently being tested with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes.
His research has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal, and Astronomy and Astrophysics. In addition to astrophysics, Katz has been active in the fields of medical research, Covid-19, and genetics, having published papers in the British Journal of Haematology and European Journal of Haematology. He also founded a venture-backed company in rare genetic diseases and was named to the Forbes 2019 Europe 30 under 30 list in science and health care.
Katz graduated magna cum laude with BS degrees in astronomy and physics from the University of Maryland, College Park. He earned a PhD in astronomy from the University of Cambridge. Most recently he was a Beecroft Fellow in Cosmology and Nicholas Kurti Junior Research Fellow in the Sciences at the University of Oxford. He will join the University of Chicago faculty on January 1, 2024.