Prof. Dr. Joseph Mohr

Chair: Cosmology and Structure Formation

Mohr's research interests include cosmology, galaxy clusters, weak gravitational lensing, large scale structure and aspects of galaxy evolution. His research lies at the interface of theory and observations, where he employs multi-wavelength survey datasets and simulations to address key questions such as the underlying cause of the cosmic acceleration, the nature of dark matter and the behavior of gravity on the largest cosmic scales. In addition, he invests significantly in the planning and preparation for astronomical missions, developing scientific analysis and data handling software for the South Pole Telescope, the Dark Energy Survey, eROSITA, Euclid, MeerKAT and Rubin.

Mohr first studied physics at MIT and then pursued his Masters and PhD (1995) in astronomy at Harvard University with Prof. Margaret Geller and Dr. Daniel Fabricant. He then moved to the University of Michigan to work as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Gus Evrard, followed by time as a NASA Chandra Fellow at the University of Chicago working with Prof. John Carlstrom. In 2000 he took up an assistant professorship at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and was promoted in 2004 to Associate and then in 2008 to Full Professor. He and his family moved to Munich in 2009 to take up the Chair of Cosmology and Structure Formation in the LMU Physics Faculty. He was awarded a Humboldt Fellowship in 2008 and inducted as a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2010. He has served as an Associated Chair at MPE since 2009 and as a Max Planck Society Faculty Fellow since 2014.