Name: Ramin Skibba
Hometown: Denver, Colorado. I’m also half-Iranian, and my given name came from that side. Before I came to southern California, I’ve also lived in Wisconsin, Indiana, Pennsylvania, southwest Germany, and Arizona.
Hobbies: reading, traveling, skiing, hiking, playing the violin, listening to music, swing dancing
What do you study? I study galaxies and dark matter. Our Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy are the ones we know best, but with telescopes and observatories, we have observations of many more. I try to figure out which kinds of galaxies tend to live in which regions of the universe. At the same time, I use simulations of dark matter particles to figure out how big clumps of dark matter might be related to groups of galaxies.
Why is it important? New surveys of galaxies give us information that we never had before. We now have observations of millions of galaxies, which allows us to use statistics to learn more about them. My work helps to tell us how much matter is in the universe–how much is in stars, gas, dust, and planets, and how much is in dark matter. My work also tells us about how galaxies are distributed and how they grow and evolve. It also tells us more about our own galaxy, which may be unique in some ways.
What do you like about being a scientist? I like being a scientist because it’s like being an explorer. I like trying to understand why galaxies and dark matter evolve in a particular way, and I like having the opportunity to learn something that has never been learned before. As a scientist, I think you have to enjoy asking questions even more than answering them. I also like meeting scientists around the country and around the world, many of whom expose me to new ideas and perspectives.