Oliver Zahn

Zahn was born in Munich and studied physics and philosophy at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, doing his Diploma thesis in theoretical astrophysics jointly at Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and New York University, graduating summa cum laude. He went on to do his dissertation work in cosmology at Harvard University, before winning the inaugural prize fellowship at UC Berkeley's Center for Cosmological Physics,{{Cite web|title=Oliver Zahn {{!}} BCCP|date=11 February 2014 |url=https://bccp.berkeley.edu/people/oliver-zahn/}} funded directly by the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics.{{Cite web|title=12.04.2007 - Nobelist Smoot launches new cosmology center|url=https://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/12/04_bccp.shtml|access-date=2021-07-11|website=www.berkeley.edu}}

In 2019, Oliver founded Climax Foods to replace animal foods with dairy and meat directly produced from plants, circumventing the animals' complex metabolisms and thereby reducing greenhouse gases and water use caused by animal agriculture. Climax aims to outcompete animal products by offering zero-compromise alternatives that are purely plant-based, yet indistinguishable in terms of taste and texture, and better than their animal-based competitors in terms of nutrition and price.{{Cite web|url=https://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Article/2020/09/01/Climax-Foods-raises-7.5m-We-want-to-replace-animals-as-inefficient-factories-for-converting-plants-into-meat-and-dairy|title=Climax Foods raises $7.5m: 'We want to replace animals as inefficient factories for converting plants into meat and dairy'|website=foodnavigator-usa.com|date=September 2020 }}{{Cite web|date=November 10, 2020|title=How one man's philosophy of data and food science could help save the planet|url=https://grist.org/fix/how-one-mans-philosophy-of-data-and-food-science-could-help-save-the-planet/|website=Fix}}{{Cite web|date=September 1, 2020|title=Climax Foods Raises $7.5M for its Machine Learning Approach to Plant-Based Cheese|url=https://thespoon.tech/climax-foods-raises-7-5m-for-its-machine-learning-approach-to-plant-based-cheese/|website=The Spoon}}

Zahn has worked on a broad range of topics in theoretical, computational, and observational astrophysics and cosmology. Working with multiple multi-national collaborations, he has co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles with more than 14,000 citations and a h-index of 68.{{Cite web|url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1PFdUcYAAAAJ&hl=en|title=Oliver Zahn|website=scholar.google.com}}

As an undergraduate at Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Zahn studied the early Universe and constrained deviations from the laws of gravity and electro-magnetism during the Big Bang.{{Cite journal|last1=Zahn|first1=Oliver|last2=Zaldarriaga|first2=Matias|date=2003-03-18|title=Probing the Friedmann equation during recombination with future cosmic microwave background experiments|url=https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.67.063002|journal=Physical Review D|volume=67|issue=6|pages=063002|doi=10.1103/PhysRevD.67.063002|arxiv=astro-ph/0212360|bibcode=2003PhRvD..67f3002Z|s2cid=118750168}}

While a doctoral student at Harvard University, Zahn and co-authors Smith and Dore detected, for the first time, gravitational lensing in the cosmic microwave background.{{Cite journal|last1=Smith|first1=Kendrick M.|last2=Zahn|first2=Oliver|last3=Doré|first3=Olivier|date=2007-08-08|title=Detection of gravitational lensing in the cosmic microwave background|url=https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.76.043510|journal=Physical Review D|language=en|volume=76|issue=4|pages=043510|doi=10.1103/PhysRevD.76.043510|arxiv=0705.3980|bibcode=2007PhRvD..76d3510S|s2cid=119653392|issn=1550-7998}} The finding has since been confirmed by teams analyzing data from the Planck, Polarbear, and SPT telescopes {{Cite journal|last1=van Engelen|first1=A.|last2=Keisler|first2=R.|last3=Zahn|first3=O.|last4=Aird|first4=K. A.|last5=Benson|first5=B. A.|last6=Bleem|first6=L. E.|last7=Carlstrom|first7=J. E.|last8=Chang|first8=C. L.|last9=Cho|first9=H. M.|author9-link=Hsiao-Mei Cho|last10=Crawford|first10=T. M.|last11=Crites|first11=A. T.|title=A Measurement of Gravitational Lensing of the Microwave Background Using South Pole Telescope Data|date=2012-09-10|url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/756/2/142|journal=The Astrophysical Journal|volume=756|issue=2|pages=142|doi=10.1088/0004-637X/756/2/142|arxiv=1202.0546|bibcode=2012ApJ...756..142V|s2cid=39214417|issn=0004-637X}}{{Cite journal|last1=Ade|first1=P. A. R.|last2=Akiba|first2=Y.|last3=Anthony|first3=A. E.|last4=Arnold|first4=K.|last5=Atlas|first5=M.|last6=Barron|first6=D.|last7=Boettger|first7=D.|last8=Borrill|first8=J.|last9=Chapman|first9=S.|last10=Chinone|first10=Y.|last11=Dobbs|first11=M.|date=2014-07-09|title=Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Lensing Power Spectrum with the POLARBEAR Experiment|url=https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.021301|journal=Physical Review Letters|language=en|volume=113|issue=2|pages=021301|doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.021301|pmid=25062161|arxiv=1312.6646|bibcode=2014PhRvL.113b1301A|s2cid=25628512|issn=0031-9007}}{{Cite journal|last1=Planck Collaboration|last2=Aghanim|first2=N.|author2-link=Nabila Aghanim|last3=Akrami|first3=Y.|last4=Ashdown|first4=M.|last5=Aumont|first5=J.|last6=Baccigalupi|first6=C.|last7=Ballardini|first7=M.|last8=Banday|first8=A. J.|last9=Barreiro|first9=R. B.|last10=Bartolo|first10=N.|last11=Basak|first11=S.|date=2020|title=Planck 2018 results: VIII. Gravitational lensing|url=https://www.aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201833886|journal=Astronomy & Astrophysics|volume=641|pages=A8|doi=10.1051/0004-6361/201833886|arxiv=1807.06210|bibcode=2020A&A...641A...8P|s2cid=119328305|issn=0004-6361}}

In a separate series of papers {{Cite journal|url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/509597/meta|doi=10.1086/509597|title=Simulations and Analytic Calculations of Bubble Growth during Hydrogen Reionization|year=2007|last1=Zahn|first1=Oliver|last2=Lidz|first2=Adam|last3=McQuinn|first3=Matthew|last4=Dutta|first4=Suvendra|last5=Hernquist|first5=Lars|last6=Zaldarriaga|first6=Matias|last7=Furlanetto|first7=Steven R.|journal=The Astrophysical Journal|volume=654|issue=1|pages=12–26|arxiv=astro-ph/0604177|bibcode=2007ApJ...654...12Z|s2cid=14636746}}{{Cite journal|url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/505167/meta|doi=10.1086/505167|title=Cosmological Parameter Estimation Using 21 cm Radiation from the Epoch of Reionization|year=2006|last1=McQuinn|first1=Matthew|last2=Zahn|first2=Oliver|last3=Zaldarriaga|first3=Matias|last4=Hernquist|first4=Lars|last5=Furlanetto|first5=Steven R.|journal=The Astrophysical Journal|volume=653|issue=2|pages=815–834|arxiv=astro-ph/0512263|bibcode=2006ApJ...653..815M|s2cid=1823028}}{{cite journal |doi=10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.18439.x|title=Comparison of reionization models: Radiative transfer simulations and approximate, seminumeric models |year=2011 |last1=Zahn |first1=Oliver |last2=Mesinger |first2=Andrei |last3=McQuinn |first3=Matthew |last4=Trac |first4=Hy |last5=Cen |first5=Renyue |last6=Hernquist |first6=Lars E. |journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |volume=414 |issue=1 |pages=727–738 |doi-access=free |arxiv=1003.3455 |bibcode=2011MNRAS.414..727Z |s2cid=118708351 }} Zahn introduced statistical measures to use redshifted 21 cm radiation to study otherwise inaccessible periods of the Universe's structure formation. He invented a novel simulation framework to study galaxy formation in the cosmic web, yielding orders of magnitude performance gains compared to previous ray tracing frameworks, enabling exploration of much larger parameter spaces.

While leading analyses for the University of Chicago and University of California, Berkeley, based South Pole Telescope collaboration, Zahn and his team showed that the first galaxies formed more explosively than previously thought.{{Cite journal|last1=Zahn|first1=O.|last2=Reichardt|first2=C. L.|last3=Shaw|first3=L.|last4=Lidz|first4=A.|last5=Aird|first5=K. A.|last6=Benson|first6=B. A.|last7=Bleem|first7=L. E.|last8=Carlstrom|first8=J. E.|last9=Chang|first9=C. L.|last10=Cho|first10=H. M.|author10-link=Hsiao-Mei Cho|last11=Crawford|first11=T. M.|title=Cosmic Microwave Background Constraints on the Duration and Timing of Reionization from the South Pole Telescope|date=2012-09-01|url=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/756/1/65|journal=The Astrophysical Journal|volume=756|issue=1|pages=65|doi=10.1088/0004-637X/756/1/65|arxiv=1111.6386|bibcode=2012ApJ...756...65Z|s2cid=118469424|issn=0004-637X}}{{Cite web|title=Explosion of Galaxy Formation Lit Up Early Universe|url=https://today.lbl.gov/2012/09/06/explosion-of-galaxy-formation-lit-up-early-universe/|website=today.lbl.gov}}

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Category:American astrophysicists

Category:German astrophysicists

Category:American data scientists

Category:Businesspeople from Munich

Category:Observational astronomy

Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Living people