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Contact Information


Centre for Astrophysics and Cosmology

Faculty of Physical Sciences
University of Iceland
Dunhagi 5 (Tæknigarður)
107 Reykjavík, Iceland
office: 319
e-mail: jzavala@hi.is

I am a Professor at the Centre for Astrophysics and Cosmology at the University of Iceland. In 2016 I moved from the Dark Cosmology Centre at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, where I was a Marie Curie Fellow (2013-2016). Previously, I had a joint postdoctoral position at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo (2010-2013).

My research interests are related broadly to two topics, the intrinsic nature of dark matter, and its impact on the formation, evolution and properties of galaxies.

Curriculum Vitae (download PDF)

Group Members

  • Mark Lovell (postdoc, 2017-)
  • Tamari Meshveliani (PhD student, 2020-)


Alumni (UoI = University of Iceland)

  • Jan Burger (PhD student, UoI, 2017-2021)
  • Sebastian Bohr (PhD student, UoI, 2017-2021)
  • Chaichalit Srisawat (postdoc, UoI, 2017-2019)
  • Sigurður Bjartmar Magnússon (BSc student, UoI, 2020-2021)
  • Arna María Ormsdóttir (BSc student, UoI, 2020)
  • Una Kamilla Steinsen (BSc student, UoI, 2019)
  • Rúnar Unnsteinsson (BSc student, UoI, 2019)
  • Bryndís María Ragnarsdóttir (BSc student, UoI, 2018-2019)
  • Gunnlaugur Helgi Stefansson (BSc student, UoI, 2018-2019)
  • Dagur Úlfarsson (BSc student, UoI, 2017)
  • Thejs Brinckmann (MSc student, DARK Cosmology Centre, Copenhagen, 2014-2015)
  • Jose Chimeno (BSc student, DARK Cosmology Centre, Copenhagen, 2014)


Summer students

  • J. I. Reynoso C. (PhD student, U. of Guanajuato, Mexico, 2019)
  • Camille Collinet (MSc student, U. Bordeaux, France, 2017)
  • Eric Moseley (BSc, Caltech, 2016)
  • Stephen Ro (BSc, University of Waterloo, Canada, 2011)