Duncan Watts

Duncan Watts is a Researcher at the University of Oslo’s Department of Astrophysics within the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. He holds a PhD in Physics and Astronomy from Johns Hopkins University (2018) and a BA in Physics and Astronomy from Harvard College (2012). His primary research focuses on cosmology, the cosmic microwave background (CMB), and analyzing microwave emissions from the Milky Way to address fundamental questions about the universe. Watts is a key contributor to the Cosmoglobe project and the CMB&CO group, advancing Bayesian statistical methods for CMB analysis and end-to-end error propagation. He has also worked on the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) experiment, focusing on instrument calibration, polarization measurements, and foreground separation. His affiliations include the University of Oslo (2020–present) and Johns Hopkins University (2018–2020).

Research interests span cosmological parameter estimation, CMB polarization, instrument design, and open science practices. Notable projects include reprocessing WMAP/Planck data for synchrotron emission models and constraining cosmic birefringence. Watts collaborates on initiatives like BeyondPlanck and LiteBIRD, emphasizing reproducible methodologies and data longevity.

Publications emphasize CMB instrumentation, data pipelines, and Bayesian analysis, with recent works addressing atmospheric cloud polarization, bolometer performance optimization, and full-sky synchrotron modeling. His work bridges observational cosmology with computational techniques, aiming to refine CMB data interpretation and cosmological inference.

Labs/teams: COSMOGLOBE, CMB&CO group, BeyondPlanck collaboration, and the COMAP project. Active in developing tools like ZodiPy for simulating zodiacal emission and improving CMB mapmaking algorithms through Gibbs sampling.