Ofer Lahav

Ofer Lahav (Hebrew: עופר להב) is Perren Chair of Astronomy at University College London (UCL), previously Vice-Dean (International) of the UCL Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MAPS) and Co-Director of the STFC Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science.

His research area is Observational Cosmology, in particular probing Dark Matter and Dark Energy. His work involves Machine Learning for Big Data.

Lahav served as the UCL Head of Astrophysics (2004–2011), Vice-Dean (Research) of UCL's Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (2011–2015), and as Vice-President of the Royal Astronomical Society (2010–2012). He is one of the founders of the Dark Energy Survey (DES), and he co-chaired the international DES Science Committee from inception until 2016. He chairs both the DES:UK and DESI:UK consortia, as well as the DES Advisory Board. He previously served as a member of the STFC Science Board (2016–2019). From 2012 to 2018, Lahav held a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant on "Testing the Dark Energy Paradigm" (TESTDE programme).