Yun Wang

Yun Wang (born 1964) is a poet and cosmologist. She is originally from Gaoping, a small town near Zunyi, in Guizhou Province, China.

Professional work in astrophysics

Yun Wang received a bachelor's degree in physics from Tsinghua University in Beijing, after which she came to the United States and obtained her master's and doctorate (also in physics) from Carnegie Mellon University. A senior research scientist at California Institute of Technology since 2015, and a professor in the University of Oklahoma's department of physics and astronomy until 2017, she has published over 100 refereed papers, with research focusing on probing the dark energy in the universe, with particular attention to the use of supernovae and galaxy redshift surveys as cosmological probes, the cosmic microwave background anisotropy, and measures of cosmological parameters.

Yun Wang has developed strategies for optimizing future surveys to probe dark energy, and created a mission concept for the NASA-DOE Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM), the Joint Efficient Dark-energy Investigation (JEDI), and served as the principal investigator of JEDI. The JEDI/JDEM mission concept combined multiple observational methods, including galaxy clustering, weak lensing, and supernovae, to study dark energy. JEDI has significantly impacted the design of space missions to probe dark energy.

Yun Wang was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2012, with the citation: "For her leadership in dark energy research, especially in developing a robust and consistent framework for analysing and interpreting cosmological data to place model-independent constraints on dark energy, and in optimizing the science return of planned space missions to probe dark energy" (from http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/archive-all.cfm?initial=W&year=2012&unit_id=DAP&institution=)

Yun Wang is a Founder of ESA's Euclid Mission, which was launched on July 1, 2023. She has co-led one of the two major science working groups for the Euclid Consortium, the Euclid Galaxy Clustering Science Working Group. Wang has led galaxy clustering science for NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, with launch planned on August 30, 2026. Roman is highly synergistic with Euclid in illuminating the mystery of the dark Universe, see https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-roman-and-esas-euclid-will-team-up-to-investigate-dark-energy.

Yun Wang is the PI of ATLAS Probe, a mission concept for a NASA probe-class space mission. ATLAS Probe will map the cosmic web of dark matter, and decode the physics of galaxy evolution. It will also provide definitive measurements on dark energy, explore dusty regions of the Inner Milky Way, and probe the formation history of the Outer Solar System. Yun Wang was also the PI of the space mission ISCEA (Infrared SmallSat for Cluster Evolution Astrophysics), selected by NASA in September 2018 for a mission concept study. Yun Wang is the PI of SIRMOS (Satellite for InfraRed Multi-Object Spectroscopy), a NASA MIDEX mission concept under development, which will accomplish most of the ATLAS Probe science on a shorter timescale, and address major questions in cosmology formulated by the Astro2020 Decadal Survey.

Her technical monograph "Dark Energy" was published by Wiley in 2010.

Her work on dark energy and cosmological constraints has been widely cited in the field (with citations from INSPIRE-HEP): (Times Cited: 337) (Times Cited: 306) (Times Cited: 302) (Times Cited: 285) (Times Cited: 207) (Times Cited:205)

Poetry Poetry Books Dao De Jing by Laozi (Translated by Li-Young Lee & Yun Wang, Chinese/English bilingual, ), W. W. Norton & Company, October 2024 The Book of Mirrors , Winner of the Twenty-Sixth White Pine Press Poetry Prize, White Pine Press, 2021 Dreaming of Fallen Blossoms: Tune Poems of Su Dong-Po (, Translations, Chinese/English bilingual), White Pine Press, 2019 The Book of Totality , Salmon Poetry Press, 2015 The Book of Jade , Winner of the Fifteenth Nicklas Roerich Poetry Prize, Story Line Press, 2002

Poetry Chapbooks Horse by the Mountain Stream , Word Palace Press, 2016. The Carp, Bull Thistle Press, 1994