About me

I’m Cian (pronounced “k-ian”, he/they), a physics PhD candidate at MIT. I work on understanding the particle nature of dark matter using gravitational lensing and stellar kinematics, and bridging the gap between cosmological simulations and real observations.

Gravitational lensing

When a massive object sits between us and a distant source, its gravity bends the light into arcs and rings. Because the bending depends only on the mass of the lens and geometry, it is one of the cleanest ways to map dark matter.

Below is a simulator to help gain some intuition about gravitational lensing. Click a preset configuration or load your own source image by clicking the source panel and pasting (Ctrl+V or Cmd+V), or drag and drop an image. Change the lens position by clicking on the right panel.