Dr. Mark C. Neyrinck
Mark C. Neyrinck, Ph.D. is Research Scientist at Blue Marble Space Institute of Science and Head of Space Physics at Lexset, with over 20 years of experience in cosmology, astrophysics, and interdisciplinary science education. He specializes in connections between structures and processes on Earth and in space, cosmology, the cosmic web of galaxies and matter, and field-based interdisciplinary astronomy learning.
Mark is internationally recognized for his discovery of rotating intergalactic filaments through his ‘origami’ and ‘cosmic spiderweb’ descriptions of cosmic structure formation, as featured in a NOVA program.His groundbreaking research has fundamentally changed our understanding of the universe’s largest structures and earned him citations from over 6,400 scholarly works. Read The cosmic spiderweb: equivalence of cosmic, architectural, and origami tessellations.
Currently serving as Research Scientist at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science since February 2024, Mark conducts cutting-edge research on the cosmic web and its Earth-based analogues. As Head of Space Physics at Lexset, a consulting position he has held since July 2023, he leads modeling for space simulations.
His recent work includes developing the MUSCLE-UPS code for producing approximate cosmological realizations and investigating how information is gained or lost in the cosmos.His theoretical prediction that intergalactic filaments spin was confirmed almost simultaneously by observations, representing one of the rare situations in which a theoretical prediction has been verified in real-time.
Read MUSCLE-UPS: Improved Approximations of the Matter Field with the Extended Press-Schechter Formalism and Lagrangian Perturbation Theory. Read Intergalactic filaments found to spin – campusa-magazine – UPV/EHU and Intergalactic filaments spin.
Throughout his career, Mark has held prestigious positions at leading international institutions. From April 2018 to April 2023, he served as an Ikerbasque Fellow at the University of the Basque Country in Spain. During this period, he developed his revolutionary origami model of the cosmic web, demonstrating that the physical correspondence between the cosmic web and structural-engineering or textile ‘spiderwebs’ extends to origami tessellations as well.
His work showed that threads of the cosmic web form a spiderweb that can be strung up to be entirely in tension. Previously, he held positions as Associate Research Scientist and Assistant Research Scientist at Johns Hopkins University from 2011 to 2016, where he was also a W. M. Keck Fellow from 2008 to 2011.
Read Royal Society Open Science, The Cosmic Spiderweb and General Origami Tessellation Design, and The cosmic spiderweb: equivalence of cosmic, architectural and origami tessellations.
Mark’s pioneering achievements include identifying connections between the structure and formation of branching structures such as trees, tree canopies, and river networks.He pioneered techniques to detect and analyze cosmic voids for cosmological constraints through the standard void-finder ZOBOV, making the first detection of the cold imprints of voids on the cosmic microwave background, a sign of dark energy.
His statistical advances include a log-transform to simplify large-scale-structure analysis, related to computer vision and image processing, of wide interest outside astronomy as well.In 2013, he received the prestigious Templeton New Frontiers in Astronomy and Cosmology Award/Grant as the only non-faculty recipient for his project “Information Flowing and Folding into Complexity“.Read zobov: a parameter-free void-finding algorithm. Watch The Origami Revolution featuring his research.
Mark earned his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he received the Richard N. Thomas Award for the most outstanding research by a graduating PhD student.His dissertation, titled Illuminating the Tips of Dark-Matter Icebergs, was supervised by Andrew J. S. Hamilton and Nickolay Y. Gnedin.
He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Physics with specialization in Astronomy from the University of Chicago, where he received the Lewis Prize for the “best graduating senior in physics”. He also studied Mathematics at Pembroke College, Cambridge University, and completed Terra.do certificates for climate science and mitigation.
Between 2016 and 2018, Mark held positions as Postdoctoral Researcher at Durham University from Summer 2016 to Winter 2017 and Visiting Scientist at Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris from January to July 2016.Earlier in his career, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, from Fall 2005 to Summer 2008.He has also served as Adjunct Professor in the Physics & Astronomy Department at the University of Denver in Spring 2024, where he taught courses including “Origami Mathematics and Cosmology”.From 2021 to 2023, he served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Titan Space Technologies Corporation. Read Galaxy Quenching from Cosmic Web Detachment.
Mark’s extensive publication record includes over 400 research publications with an h-index of 35 and over 5,690 total citations according to his Google Scholar.His recent work has garnered significant media attention, including features in Newsweek for Milky Way Bigger Than It Should Be in January 2023, Science News for Cosmic filaments may be the biggest spinning objects in space in June 2021, and New Scientist for The Cosmic Web that Connects Galaxies Together May Be Spinning in June 2020.
He has presented at prestigious venues including Science Foo Camp by Google/Nature magazine/O’Reilly Media, the Aspen Center for Physics, and the International Ontology Congress.Watch The Biggest Rotating Things in the Universe organized, 60 Minutes in Space: November 2021, and Bringing the Cosmic Web Down to Earth with Mark Neyrinck on the Big Impact Astronomy Podcast.
As a science communicator and educator, Mark has developed innovative approaches to making complex cosmological concepts accessible. His Fold Your Own Galaxy origami activity and Fold Your Own Universe NASA SpaceApp have been featured in museums and science festivals worldwide.
He has conducted workshops at venues including Science Gallery Dublin, Science Gallery London’s DARK MATTER exhibition, and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.His artistic collaborations include participation in the “As Above As Below” neuroscience/cosmology/art exhibition in San Francisco and serving as “The Bridge” Resident at the SciArt Center from 2016–2017.
Mark grew up in Denver as an academic nerd, fascinated with math, physics, music, and writing.He currently resides in Colorado, where he continues his research while engaging in music composition, piano, creative writing, mathematics, and origami.
His interdisciplinary approach has led him to note that “It is amazing that this toy model based on origami twist folds has anything to do with the way filaments rotate in the real Universe. I’m not aware of a better example of an apparent detour through art enabling scientific discovery.”
Watch Mark Neyrinck – The Origin of Information in the Universe. Arts & Sciences Telluride 2024 and Mark Neyrinck: Where the cosmos is chaotic or indeterministic. Watch Scientist Discover Cosmic Web Filaments are Rotating Just Like a Birkeland Current.
Read The cosmic spiderweb: equivalence of cosmic, architectural, and origami tessellations and The Cosmic Spiderweb and General Origami Tessellation Design.
Visit his Homepage, LinkedIn profile, Google Scholar page, iNSPIRE-HEP page, and ResearchGate profile. Follow him on Facebook, Instagram, X, GitHub, and YouTube.