David Wands

David Wands is a Professor of Cosmology at the University of Portsmouth, affiliated with the Faculty of Technology and the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG). His research focuses on theoretical cosmology, particularly the physics of the early universe, primordial perturbations, gravitational waves, and dark energy. He has held leadership roles, including Director of the ICG from 2010 to 2020. Wands earned his DPhil in astrophysics from the University of Sussex in 1993 and has been a Royal Society University Research Fellow. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and the Institute of Physics. His work bridges fundamental physics with observational cosmology, including contributions to the study of inflation, large-scale structure formation, and gravitational-wave signatures. Wands has published over 150 papers and organized major conferences like the 30th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics. He teaches advanced cosmology modules and contributes to editorial roles in prestigious journals, such as the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.

• Education:
  • Bachelor's in Natural Sciences (Physics) and Mathematics at the University of Cambridge
  • DPhil in Astrophysics at the University of Sussex (1993)
• Key Roles:
  • Board Member, Gravitational Physics Division, European Physical Society
  • Member, Particle Data Group collaboration
• Research Highlights:
  • Primordial black hole formation and gravitational-wave detection
  • Stochastic inflation models and quantum diffusion
  • Non-linear cosmological perturbations and relativistic effects

His research outputs span interdisciplinary topics such as modified gravity predictions using N-body simulations, CMB constraints on inflationary parameters, and applications of artificial neural networks in cosmology. Awards include the Daiwa-Adrian Prize for UK-Japan collaboration (2010).