Simone Aiola

Simone Aiola serves as a Researcher and Data & Pipeline Project Leader for the Simons Observatory (SO) at the Center for Computational Astrophysics (CCA), Flatiron Institute, a position he assumed in late 2018. He leads the development of data-reduction pipelines to extract cosmological insights from raw observational data collected by SO's four telescopes deployed in the Atacama Desert.

His academic credentials include a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Pittsburgh and integrated Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”. Prior to joining the Flatiron Institute, he conducted postdoctoral research at Princeton University for approximately two years, specializing in data analysis from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT).

Dr. Aiola's research centers on precision cosmology through cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements, leveraging computational astrophysics and advanced data processing techniques. His work drives major international collaborations like SO and ACT, which aim to map primordial radiation with unprecedented resolution to investigate fundamental questions about the universe's origin, composition, and evolution. As project leader for SO's data pipeline, he bridges observational astronomy with high-performance computing to transform terabytes of raw telescope data into cosmological parameters.

His leadership in the Simons Observatory collaboration positions him at the forefront of next-generation CMB experiments, where his pipeline development efforts directly enable breakthroughs in dark matter research, neutrino physics, and inflationary cosmology through ultra-sensitive polarization measurements.