Minh Nguyen named a recipient of the 2024 Buchalter Cosmology Prize

January 20, 2025
Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU, WPI)

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Kavli IPMU Project Researcher Minh Nguyen (Credit: Kavli IPMU)

Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU, WPI) Project Researcher Minh Nguyen has been awarded Third Prize for the 2024 Buchalter Cosmology Prize, it was announced on January 16 at the 245th Meeting of the American Astonomical Society in the US.

The Buchalter Cosmology Prize was established in 2014 by Ari Buchalter, an astrophysicist-turned-entrepreneur who remains keenly interested in cosmology. First, Second and Third Prizes are awarded to new ideas or discoveries that have the potential to produce breakthrough advances in our understanding of the origin, structure, and evolution of the universe beyond current standard cosmological models.

Nguyen is being recognized for work he carried out as Leinweber Fellow at the University of Michigan before joining Kavli IPMU in 2024. 

With his colleagues, who are also being recognized with the prize, Nguyen developed a Field-Level Inference (FLI) approach for analyzing 3D galaxy maps from large-scale galaxy surveys such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, or Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS). Unlike conventional methods that compress data, Nguyen and his team use FLI to directly analyze a 3D map by separating it into a lattice of millions of voxels, treating each as a parameter fitted to the data, enabling maximal extraction of cosmological information and revealing the dark universe’s large-scale structure underlying galaxies.

“It is my pleasure to share this prize with my coauthors, who entrusted me with the responsibility of leading this project. I view the prize as a recognition to the collective efforts of the entire LEFTfield group, each member contributing tirelessly over the past 6–7 years to bring the concept of FLI to life and demonstrate its potential. This achievement would not have been possible without the broader community effort fostered by the Beyond-Two-Point Data Challenge and the Beyond-Two-Point Collaboration, led by Elisabeth Krause.

“Having worked on FLI since the start of my PhD in 2016, it brings me immense joy to reach this milestone—successfully applying FLI to simulated yet realistic data and showcasing its capabilities. Yet, this is far from the end. On the contrary, I see this breakthrough and the Buchalter Prize as a turning point for FLI. As the cosmology community increasingly recognizes its potential, I look forward to more parallel efforts and emerging collaborations that will fully realize this paradigm shift. 

“I further appreciate that cosmologists at Kavli IPMU, in particular Jun’ichi Yokoyama and Masahiro Takada, share with us this vision of FLI and my goal to apply FLI on PFS data.

“On a personal note, I am deeply grateful to my PhD and postdoc advisors, Fabian Schmidt and Dragan Huterer, for their unwavering support of my development as a researcher. Finally, my interest in physics and my curiosity about the universe wouldn’t be there in the first place without my physics teachers in middle and high school,” said Nguyen.

Nguyen says his focus for the next few years will be to adapt his FLI approach to real-world cases, starting with the Prime Focus Spectrograph, which is due to start scientific operations next month.

 

Related links
AAS Names Recipients of 2025 Awards & Prizes (American Astronomical Society)
The Buchalter Cosmology Prize is pleased to announce the 2024 winners (The Buchalter Cosmology Prize)