Peter Adshead

Peter Adshead
Peter Adshead

Primary Research Area

  • Astrophysics / Relativity / Cosmology
Associate Professor

Compton Faculty Fellow

(217) 244-7862
237B Loomis Laboratory

For More Information

Biography

Professor Adshead received his PhD in Physics in 2010 from Yale University after receiving his BSc. with first class honors at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2004. He was a KICP fellow at the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago and a postdoctoral associate at the University of Cambridge before joining the faculty at the University of Illinois in 2014.

Research Statement

Professor Adshead works on a broad range of topics in the very early universe, focussing primarily on the physics of inflation and their imprint on the cosmic microwave background radiation, the reheating phase transition that must end inflation and begin the hot Big Bang, and the connections between high-energy particle physics and the early universe.

Recent Courses Taught

  • PHYS 211 - University Physics: Mechanics
  • PHYS 212 - University Physics: Elec & Mag
  • PHYS 325 - Classical Mechanics I
  • PHYS 326 - Classical Mechanics II

Semesters Ranked Excellent Teacher by Students

SemesterCourseOutstanding
Fall 2023PHYS 325
Fall 2019PHYS 326
Spring 2019PHYS 326
Fall 2016PHYS 326