the group
Gluscevic group, circa 2022.
Vera Gluscevic, PI
Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Southern California. Professor Gluscevic’s research focuses on using cosmological and astrophysical probes to unveil fundamental physics that governs our universe. She previously an Eric Schmidt Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She received her PhD in Astrophysics at Caltech, and her undergraduate degree in Astrophysics, at the University of Belgrade, Serbia.
Priyank Parashari, postdoc
Dr. Parashari is an expert on cosmological inference, neutrino and dark matter cosmology, and primordial black holes. He received his PhD from Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.
Wendy Crumrine, graduate student
Wendy is using Milky Way satellite abundance measurements to test dark matter scattering with neutrinos and photons. She earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard and her master’s from San Francisco State University.
Jeisson Pulido Calderon, graduate student and NSF Fellow
Jeisson is using semi-analytic models and JWST observations to understand astrophysics and dark matter physics governing the first galaxies. Jeisson earned her undergraduate degree from Cal State Dominguez Hills.
Arif Chu, graduate student
Arif works on reconstructing matter power spectrum on small scales, using numerical simulations and galaxy survey data. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington, Seattle.
James Wen, graduate student
James is developing simulations of the Milky Way within interacting dark matter cosmologies. James earned his undergraduate degree at USC.
Sasha Mintz, USC-Carnegie graduate student and NSF Fellow
Sasha is measuring dark matter content in ultra faint dwarf galaxies in order to constrain particle properties of dark matter. Sasha earned her undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech.
Interested in joining the team?
If you are a USC undergraduate student, a prospective PhD student, or a prospective postdoc, and want to know more about potential research opportunities, send an email to vera.gluscevic [ at ] usc.edu.
Former members:
Ethan Nadler (postdoc 2021-2024; now faculty at UCSD).
Rui An (postdoc 2021-2024).
Adam He (PhD 2025).
Aryan Rahimieh (PhD 2025).
Trey Driskell (PhD 2025).
Resherle Verna (post-bacc student and former USC masters student, class of 2020, GEM fellow; continued on to PhD at UT Austin).
Karime Maamari (USC undergrad, class of 2022).
Dimple Sarnaaik (USC undergrad, class of 2021; continued on to PhD at USC)
David Nguyen (USC undergrad, class of 2021; continued on to PhD at Yale).
Isabella Johansson (USC master student, graduated 2021).
Prayaas Aggarwal (B.S. Physics/Computer Science, USC Class of 2020; now Software/Systems Engineer at Qualcomm).
Brenda Zhou (USC undergrad, class of 2021).
Aizhan Akhmedzanova (Princeton undergrad, class of 2020; now PhD student at Harvard).
Katelyn Neese (Princeton undergrad, class of 2017; now Metrology Engineer at Newport News Shipbuilding).