University of Waterloo
200 University Avenue West
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
Phone: (519) 888-4567 ext 32215
Fax: (519) 746-8115
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
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.
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]
1999 PhD University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is centralized within our Office of Indigenous Relations.