Title: Discoveries from CMB-HD with Dr. Neelima Sehgal

Please join us on Wednesday, October 7th, 2026, for an in-person presentation by a leading cosmologist at the forefront of Cosmic Microwave Background research. We are honored to welcome Dr. Neelima Sehgal, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University, who will speak about "Discoveries from CMB-HD."

About Our Speaker:
Dr. Neelima Sehgal is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Stony Brook University, a position she has held since September 2025. She was previously an Associate Professor (2018-2025) and an Assistant Professor (2012-2018) at Stony Brook. She received her Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Rutgers University in 2008 and her B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Yale University in 1999, with distinction in both fields.

Prior to joining Stony Brook, Dr. Sehgal was a KIPAC Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University/SLAC (2008-2011) and an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University (2011-2012). Her current research interests encompass dark matter, the early universe, neutrino physics, dark energy, inflation, and quantum gravity. She was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2025 and has held a Perimeter Institute Visiting Fellowship since 2022.

Dr. Sehgal serves as the Principal Investigator of the CMB-HD Collaboration (2019-present) and has held leadership roles in several major CMB experiments, including as Co-lead of the Simons Observatory Lensing Science Working Group and the ACTPol/AdvACT Lensing Science Working Group. She has also been a lead editor for CMB lensing chapters in both the Simons Observatory and CMB-S4 forecast and science books.

About the Talk:
Cosmic Microwave Background experiments have already contributed powerful constraints on the fundamental physics and astrophysics of the Universe. Current CMB experiments, such as the Simons Observatory, are poised to extend this progress even further. However, CMB experiments still have a wealth of information to offer beyond near-term facilities, including probing the properties of dark matter, inflation, and light relic particles.

A much lower-noise and higher-resolution wide-area CMB survey can cross a number of critical fundamental physics thresholds and open a relatively untapped window of small-scale, late-time CMB anisotropies. In this presentation, Dr. Sehgal will discuss CMB-HD, a next-generation Stage-5 CMB facility, and the discoveries it can enable.

This is a rare opportunity to hear from the PI of a proposed groundbreaking experiment that could reshape our understanding of the Universe's fundamental physics. Please note that this will be an in-person talk only – we hope to see many of you there!

Clear skies!