Nhat-Minh Nguyen, PhD

Cosmologist, Kavli IPMU Fellow

Research Interest

Growth of Large-scale Structure in the Universe, New Physics from Growth of Structure, Novel Statistical and Machine-learning Methods to Maximize Information from Galaxy Surveys

Domain Expertise

Field-level, forward-modeling of large-scale galaxy redshift surveys (galaxy clustering, galaxy intrinsic alignment); Cosmic microwave background radiation (gravitational lensing, Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effects)

Affiliation

Oct 2024 - now Kavli IPMU Fellow
Kavli Institute for Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, University of Tokyo

Jan 2022 - July 2024 Leinweber Fellow
Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics, Physics Department, University of Michigan

Jul 2020 - Dec 2021 Research Associate
Physical Cosmology Group, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics

Oct 2016 - Jun 2020 PhD Candidate
Physical Cosmology Group, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics

Collaboration

Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS), ex-Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI)

Education

2016 - 2020, PhD International Max Planck Research School on Astrophysics (Magna Cum Laude)
Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching near Munich
Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich

2014 - 2016, MSc Erasmus Joint Master Degree in Astronomy & Astrophysics (with full-tution+stipend Scholarships)
University of Göttingen
University of Rome, Tor Vergata
University of Innsbruck

2008 - 2013, BSc Physics and Theoretical Physics (with Honors and Scholarships)
Ho Chi Minh University of Science

Grants, Awards

2025 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research - Kakenhi, Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up, ¥2,000,000, PI

2025 Japan Foundation for Promotion of Astronomy, Research Support Grant, ~¥320,000, PI

2024 Buchalter Cosmology Prize, presented by American Astronomical Society.

Publications

I have authored 19 publications (citations 2825; h-index 16) [INSPIRE HEP] [NASA ADS]; or 13 publications, excl. big-collaboration papers (citations 458; h-index 11) [NASA ADS];

First, co-first$^1$, or significant contributions

2025 Reconstructing the local density field with combined convolutional and point cloud architecture. Barthe-Gold, Nguyen, Thiele. arXiv preprint. Accepted for NeurIPS 2025 workshop ML4PS.

2025 A parameter-masked mock data challenge for beyond-2pt galaxy clustering statistics. Beyond-2point Collaboration. arXiv preprint. ApJ 990 99. [NASA/ADS]

2024 How much information can be extracted from galaxy clustering at the field level?. Nguyen, Schmidt, Tucci, Reinecke, Kostić. arXiv preprint. Phys. Rev. Lett. 133, 221006 [NASA/ADS] [AAS 2025 Awards and Prizes Press Release] [Space.com] [UM News] [MPA Research Highlights]

2023 Sweeping through Horndeski Canvas: a New Growth-Rate Parameterization for Modified-Gravity Theories. Wen$^1$, Nguyen$^1$, Huterer. JCAP09(2023)028. [NASA/ADS]

2023 Evidence for suppression of structure growth in the concordance cosmological model. Nguyen, Huterer, Wen. arXiv preprint. Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 111001. Editor’s Suggestion. [NASA/ADS] [SciAm] [NewScientist] [VICE] [UM News]

2022 Consistency tests of field level inference with the EFT likelihood. Kostić, Nguyen, Schmidt, Reinecke. JCAP07(2023)063. [NASA/ADS] [MPA Research Highlights]

2021 Field-level inference of galaxy intrinsic alignment from the SDSS-III BOSS survey. Tsaprazi$^1$, Nguyen$^1$, et al. JCAP08(2022)003. [NASA/ADS] [MPA Research Highlights]

2021 Impacts of the physical data model on the forward inference of initial conditions from biased tracers. Nguyen et al. JCAP03(2021)058. [NASA/ADS] [MPA Research Highlights]

2020 Taking measurements of the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect forward: including uncertainties from velocity reconstruction with forward modeling. Nguyen et al. JCAP12(2020)011. [NASA/ADS] [MPA Research Highlights] 2020

Co-author

2025 Late-time growth weakly affects the significance of high-redshift massive galaxies. Xia, Huterer, Nguyen. The Open Journal of Astrophysics Vol. 8, 2025. [NASA/ADS]

2024 DESI 2024 VII: Cosmological Constraints from the Full-Shape Modeling of Clustering Measurements. DESI Collaboration. arXiv preprint. JCAP07(2025)028. [NASA/ADS]

2024 DESI 2024 VI: Cosmological Constraints from the Measurements of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations. DESI Collaboration. arXiv preprint. JCAP02(2025)021. [NASA/ADS] [SciAm] [QuantaMagazine]

2024 DESI 2024 V: Full-Shape Galaxy Clustering from Galaxies and Quasars. DESI Collaboration. arXiv preprint. JCAP09(2025)008. [NASA/ADS]

2024 DESI 2024 IV: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from the Lyman Alpha Forest. DESI Collaboration. arXiv preprint. JCAP01(2025)124. [NASA/ADS]

2024 DESI 2024 III: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from Galaxies and Quasars. DESI Collaboration. arXiv preprint. JCAP04(2025)012. [NASA/ADS]

2024 DESI 2024 II: Sample Definitions, Characteristics, and Two-point Clustering Statistics. DESI Collaboration. arXiv preprint. JCAP07(2025)017. [NASA/ADS]

2023 Exploring the Growth Index γL: Insights from Different CMB Dataset Combinations and Approaches. Specogna et al. Phys. Rev. D 109, 043528. [NASA/ADS]

2019 Cosmology Inference from Biased Tracers using the EFT-based Likelihood. Elsner et al. JCAP01(2020)029. [NASA/ADS]

2018 A rigorous EFT-based forward model for large-scale structure. Schmidt et al. JCAP01(2019)042. [NASA/ADS]

2024 Tín hiệu mới từ vũ trụ? DESI và manh mối mới về năng lượng tối, Tia Sang Magazine.

2023 Growing in molasses: Cosmic large-scale structure caught growing slower than expected, Science X Dialog, Phys.org.

2023 Đi tìm những tín hiệu mới từ vũ trụ, Tia Sang Magazine.

Mentoring, Advising and Teaching

Mentoring

Advising on a research project

Teaching

Summer 2024 Michigan Math and Science Scholars, course instructor, “Climbing the Distance Ladder to the Big Bang: How astronomers survey the Universe.”

Summer 2023 Michigan Math and Science Scholars, guest lecturer.

Professional Services

2025

2025

2024

2024

2023 Michigan Cosmology Summer School 2023, Local Organizing Committee member.

2021-now Active referee for Physical Review D (4), Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (3), and Astronomy & Astrophysics (1),

2024-now Kavli IPMU Astro Journal Club, main organizer.

2021-2022 VLLT Joint Astronomy & Physics Seminar Series (for junior graduate and senior undergraduate students in Physics & Astronomy in Vietnam), founder and main organizer.

2022-now Cosmology Journal Club and Cosmology & Astrophysics Seminar (University of Michigan), founder & main organizer.

2020-2021 Cosmology Book Club (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics), founder & main organizer.

2018-2020 Large-scale Structure Journal Club (joint between Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics), co-organizer.

Outreach Services

Summer 2023 Ask-Me-Anything (Reddit), r/askscience and Youtube, Cosmology from Home 2023, panelist.

2022-now Institute Social Coffee (Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics), founder & co-organizer.

2022-now Skype a Scientist (science outreach and interview with students of all ages and backgrounds in the US), scientist participant.

Fall 2023 Physicists To-Go (similar to Skype-a-Scientist and organized by APS), scientist participant.

Fall 2023 Science Communication Fellows (science outreach demonstrations and presentations at Michigan local museums and libraries), scientist participant.

Selected Talks

References

Dr. Fabian Schmidt, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (PhD advisor) Email

Prof. Dragan Huterer, University of Michigan (postdoc advisor) Email

Prof. Elisabeth Krause, University of Arizona (external collaborator, mentor) Email