Chung-Pei Ma

Professor; Judy Chandler Webb Endowed Chair in the Physical Sciences

Dept of Astronomy

Dept of Physics

Faculty URL

https://astro.berkeley.edu/people/chungpei-ma/

Contact

cpma@berkeley.edu

(510) 642-3411

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Research Expertise and Interest

astrophysics, black hole, dark matter, cosmology, formation and evolution of galaxies, cosmic microwave background radiation

Research Description

Chung-Pei Ma is a professor in the Department of Physics and the Department of Astronomy. Her primary research interests are in theoretical cosmology and astrophysics. Among the topics she has studied include the properties of dark matter and dark energy, the cosmic microwave background, gravitational lensing, galaxy formation and evolution, supermassive black holes, and the large-scale structure of the universe. She occasionally manages to climb out of the dark and lumpy universe; during these sunny moments (or rather, moonless nights), she has enjoyed collaborations with observers in studying properties of galaxies using telescopes at Palomar and Keck.

In the News

artistic collage of galaxy and stars with blue spacetime

After 15 Years, Pulsar Timing Yields Evidence of Cosmic Gravitational Wave Background

At least one group has found evidence that the rhythms of these pulsars are affected by the stretching and squeezing of spacetime by these long-wavelength gravitational waves.

collage of the six new NAS members, two women, four men

Six Berkeley Faculty Members Elected to National Academy of Sciences

Membership is a widely accepted mark of excellence in science and is considered one of the highest honors that a scientist can receive.

collage of photos of de Pater, Klein and Ma

Three Faculty Named 2022 Fellows of American Astronomical Society

Three UC Berkeley astronomers have been named 2022 Fellows of the American Astronomical Society (AAS): Imke de Pater, Richard Klein, and Chung-Pei Ma.

Nine faculty elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Nine UC Berkeley faculty members from a wide range of disciplines have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), a 240-year-old organization honoring the country’s most accomplished artists, scholars, scientists and leaders.

Supermassive black holes may be lurking everywhere in the universe

A near-record supermassive black hole discovered in a sparse area of the local universe indicate that these monster objects — this one equal to 17 billion suns — may be more common than once thought, according to UC Berkeley astronomers.

Record massive black holes discovered lurking in monster galaxies

UC Berkeley astronomer Chung-Pei Ma, graduate student Nicholas McConnell and colleagues have discovered the largest black holes to date ‑- two monsters with masses equivalent to 10 billion suns that are threatening to consume anything, even light, within a region five times the size of our solar system.

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