BS, University of Bucharest
PhD, University of Michigan
Cosmin Ilie
Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy
Department/Office Information
Physics and Astronomy- T 9:00am - 11:00am (410 Ho Science Center)
- R 4:00pm - 5:00pm (410 Ho Science Center)
Contact
I use computational methods, data analysis, and forecasting techniques to connect experiments and theory in cosmology. My work focuses primarily on Dark Matter and its potential observable signatures. For example, I have explored how Dark Matter affects the formation of the first stars in the Universe. One of the most striking consequences we find is that they can become as massive as a million suns. Those enormously bright objects, called Supermassive Dark Stars, could potentially be detected by the James Webb Space telescope (JWST). In a Cozzarelli award winner 2023 PNAS study, along with Jillian Paulin ('23), we have identified the first three Dark Star photometric candidates in the JWST data. In a 2025 PNAS publication, along with Sayed Shafaat Mahmud ('25), we found four cosmic dawn objects consistent with supermassive dark stars using deep spectroscopic data from JWST's NIRSpec instrument. One of my main motivations to continue working on those fascinating objects, is the fact that they could potentially solve three seemingly disparate cosmic dawn puzzles posed by the JWST data on the earliest galaxies and the most distant Black Holes.
Additionally, I am interested in how Dark Stars, or their Black Hole remnants, could be detected using other type of signals, besides infrared light from the cosmic dawn observed with JWST. For instance, in a 2026 PRD letter co-authored with Sohan Ghodla, we show that the mergers of Supermassive Black Holes seeded by Dark Stars could contribute significantly to the gravitational wave signal detected by the Pulsar Timing Array (PTA) collaboration in 2023. Other research interests, in addition to those listed above, include the exploration of Dark Matter in non standard cosmological histories, and the effects Dark Matter captured by compact astrophysical objects has on their evolution. Some of my published work was popularized in outlets such as National Geographic, Scientific American, New Scientist, NPR's Science Friday, to name a few.