Dr. Robyn Sanderson

Biography

Robyn Sanderson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in Astrophysics. Following her Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2011, she has engaged in significant postdoctoral research at institutes including the Kapteyn Institute in the Netherlands and the Flatiron Institute in New York. Her research primarily focuses on galaxy dynamics, and she is an active member of the SDSS-V consortium and the WEAVE project, which are critical for enhancing our understanding of dark matter and galactic structure. Sanderson's work includes using data from the Gaia mission to create mock surveys and high-resolution simulations to map dark matter distribution. She has been awarded the NSF Astronomy Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship and has held guest researcher positions at prestigious institutions. Sanderson's teaching experience includes courses like Survey of the Universe and Galactic Dynamics, where she incorporates her research insights into the curriculum. She is co-chair of a working group on astrometry for future missions like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, aiming to utilize new observational data for testing dark matter theories.

Research Interests

Experience

Courses