Will Percival

Professor; Distinguished Research Chair in Astrophysics

Photo of Will Percival Professor Percival's research interests focus on the properties of the Universe on the largest scales. Surveys of three-dimensional galaxy positions provide a wealth of data both on the physics just after the Big-Bang when the seed fluctuations that will grow through gravity to become galaxies were created, and on the physics driving the evolution of the Universe today.

Contact information
Office: PHY 216G
Phone: 519 888-4567 x43108
Email: will.percival@uwaterloo.ca
Website: Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics

Expertise

Observational cosmology
Cosmological structure formation
Cosmological models
Large-Scale structure
Galaxy surveys
Galaxy formation & evolution

Research

Large international teams are required to undertake galaxy surveys, and Professor Percival helps to run a number of experiments. In particular, he holds the position of Survey Scientist in the on-going extended-Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS, www.sdss.org/surveys/eboss), and is a primary science coordinator for the future satellite mission Euclid (http://sci.esa.int/euclid). He is also working on the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI, https://www.desi.lbl.gov/) and is involved in a number of other experiments and the use of their cosmological measurements.

Highlighted Publications

W.J. Percival, (+26 co-authors), The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: The power spectrum and the matter
content of the universe, 2001, MNRAS, 327, 1297 [arXiv:0105252]

S. Cole, W.J. Percival, (+27 co-authors), The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: power spectrum, 2005,
MNRAS, 362, 505 [arXiv:0501174]

W.J. Percival, (+27 co-authors), Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data
Release 7 Galaxy Sample, 2010, MNRAS, 401, 2148 [arXiv:0907.1660]

K.S. Dawson, J.-P. Kneib,W.J. Percival, (+142 co-authors), The SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation
Spectroscopic Survey: Overview and Early Data, 2016, AJ 151, 44 [arXiv:1508.04473]

D. Bianchi, W.J. Percival, Unbiased clustering estimation in the presence of missing observations,
2017, MNRAS 472, 1106 [arXiv:1703.02070]

Awards and Distinctions

Chinese Academy of Sciences "Distinguished Scientist'' fellowship 2016.
Co-recipient of the 2008 Royal Astronomical Society team award for the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey.
Royal Astronomical Society 2008 Fowler Prize awarded to “individuals who have made a note-worthy contribution at an early stage of their research career”.
2007 Philip Leverhulme Prize awarded to “outstanding scholars (normally under the age of 36) who have made a substantial and recognised contribution to their particular field of study”