Dr Harry Desmond
Biography
I joined the ICG as a Senior Research Fellow in January 2022, supported by a Royal Society URF. Before that I was a McWilliams Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University, and before that a Junior Research Fellow at St John's College, Oxford. I obtained my PhD from Stanford University in 2017.
Research interests
I am interested primarily in developing new tests of the standard model of cosmology (gravity and/or dark sector physics) using astrophysical objects, mainly galaxies and stars. My work ranges from pure theory, through N-body and hydrodynamical simulations to statistical data analysis. I am also interested in galaxy formation and how best to characterise the relation between galaxies and their host dark matter halos.
Research outputs
2026
Statistical patterns in the equations of physics and the emergence of a meta-law of nature
Constantin, A., Ferreira, P., Desmond, H., Bartlett, D.
9 Apr 2026, In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 384, 2317, 16p., 20250091
Research output: Article
Constraining dark matter halo profiles with symbolic regression
Martin, A., Yasin, T., Bartlett, D., Desmond, H., Ferreira, P.
9 Apr 2026, In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 384, 2317, 18p., 20250090
Research output: Article
(Exhaustive) symbolic regression and model selection by minimum description length
Desmond, H.
9 Apr 2026, In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. 384, 2317, 15p., 20240584
Research output: Article
The galaxy–environment connection revealed by constrained simulations
Gallagher, C., Yasin, T., Stiskalek, R., Desmond, H., Jarvis, M. J.
1 Mar 2026, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 546, 3, 17p., stag108
Research output: Article
Clustering properties of the CatWISE2020 quasar catalogue and their impact on the cosmic dipole anomaly
Von Hausegger, S., Secrest, N., Desmond, H., Rameez, M., Mohayaee, R., Sarkar, S.
1 Mar 2026, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 546, 4, 18p., stag201
Research output: Article
1.8 percent measurement of H0 from Cepheids alone
Stiskalek, R., Desmond, H., Tsaprazi, E., Heavens, A., Lavaux, G., McAlpine, S., Jasche, J.
1 Feb 2026, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 546, 2, 24p., staf2260
Research output: Article
The Velocity Field Olympics: assessing velocity field reconstructions with direct distance tracers
Stiskalek, R., Desmond, H., Devriendt, J., Slyz, A., Lavaux, G., Hudson, M. J., Bartlett, D. J., Courtois, H. M.
1 Jan 2026, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 545, 2, 24p., staf1960
Research output: Article
2025
Renzo's rule revisited: A statistical study of galaxies' baryon-dark matter coupling
Ko, E., Yasin, T., Desmond, H., Stiskalek, R., Jarvis, M. J.
2 Dec 2025, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 544, 4, p. 4288-4305, 18p.
Research output: Article
Testing the local supervoid solution to the Hubble tension with direct distance tracers
Stiskalek, R., Desmond, H., Banik, I.
1 Oct 2025, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 543, 2, p. 1556-1573, 18p.
Research output: Article
syren-baryon: analytic emulators for the impact of baryons on the matter power spectrum
Kammerer, L., Bartlett, D. J., Kronberger, G., Desmond, H., Ferreira, P. G.
26 Sep 2025, In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. 701, 13p., A284
Research output: Article