
Overview
Background
Professor Tamara Davis is an astrophysicist who studies the elusive “dark energy” that’s accelerating the universe. She completed her PhD in 2004 at the University of New South Wales on theoretical cosmology and black holes, then worked on supernova cosmology in two postdoctoral fellowships, the first at the Australian National University (collaborating with Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory) and the second at the University of Copenhagen. In 2008 she moved to Queensland to join the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey team working on mapping the galaxies in the Universe. She led the Dark Theme within the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics, is now leading the OzDES survey -- working with the international Dark Energy Survey, and working with working with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument project. As of 2024 she is Deputy Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery.
Her accolades include the Astronomical Society of Australia's Louise Webster Medal for early career research impact, the L'Oréal Women in Science Fellowship for Australia, the Australian Institute of Physics Women in Physics Lectureship, the Australian Academy of Science’s Nancy Millis Medal for outstanding female leadership in science, an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship, the Astronomical Society of Australia's Ellery Lectureship, and a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).
Availability
- Professor Tamara Davis is:
- Not available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, University of New South Wales
Research interests
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Cosmology, Dark Energy, and Dark Matter
Using supernovae, gravitational waves, and the large-scale structure of the Universe to learn about fundamental physics. On a quest to map all the galaxies in the observable Universe.
Works
Search Professor Tamara Davis’s works on UQ eSpace
2025
Journal Article
DESI 2024 VI: cosmological constraints from the measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations
Adame, A.G., Aguilar, J., Ahlen, S., Alam, S., Alexander, D.M., Alvarez, M., Alves, O., Anand, A., Andrade, U., Armengaud, E., Avila, S., Aviles, A., Awan, H., Bahr-Kalus, B., Bailey, S., Baltay, C., Bault, A., Behera, J., BenZvi, S., Bera, A., Beutler, F., Bianchi, D., Blake, C., Blum, R., Brieden, S., Brodzeller, A., Brooks, D., Buckley-Geer, E., Burtin, E. ... The DESI collaboration (2025). DESI 2024 VI: cosmological constraints from the measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2025 (02) 021, 1-70. doi: 10.1088/1475-7516/2025/02/021
2025
Journal Article
Improving the determination of supernova cosmological redshifts by using galaxy groups
Peterson, Erik R., Carreres, Bastien, Carr, Anthony, Scolnic, Daniel, Bailey, Ava, Davis, Tamara M., Brout, Dillon, Howlett, Cullan, Jones, David O., Riess, Adam G., Said, Khaled and Taylor, Georgie (2025). Improving the determination of supernova cosmological redshifts by using galaxy groups. The Astrophysical Journal, 980 (1) 21, 1-14. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ada285
2025
Journal Article
The Dark Energy Survey Supernova Program: An updated measurement of the Hubble constant using the Inverse Distance Ladder
Camilleri, R, Davis, T M, Hinton, S R, Armstrong, P, Brout, D, Galbany, L, Glazebrook, K, Lee, J, Lidman, C, Möller, A, Nichol, R C, Sako, M, Scolnic, D, Shah, P, Smith, M, Sullivan, M, Sánchez, B O, Vincenzi, M, Wiseman, P, Allam, S, Abbott, T M C, Aguena, M, Andrade-Oliveira, F, Asorey, J, Avila, S, Bacon, D, Bechtol, K, Bocquet, S, Brooks, D ... Weaverdyck, N (2025). The Dark Energy Survey Supernova Program: An updated measurement of the Hubble constant using the Inverse Distance Ladder. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 537 (2), 1818-1825. doi: 10.1093/mnras/staf122
2025
Journal Article
A comparison between ShapeFit compression and Full-Modelling method with PyBird for DESI 2024 and beyond
Lai, Y., Howlett, C., Maus, M., Gil-Marín, H., Noriega, H.E., Ramírez-Solano, S., Zarrouk, P., Aguilar, J., Ahlen, S., Alves, O., Aviles, A., Brooks, D., Chen, S., Claybaugh, T., Davis, T. M., Dawson, K., de la Macorra, A., Doel, P., Forero-Romero, J. E., Gaztañaga, E., Gontcho, S.Gontcho A., Honscheid, K., Juneau, S., Landriau, M., Manera, M., Miquel, R., Mueller, E., Nadathur, S., Niz, G. ... Zou, H. (2025). A comparison between ShapeFit compression and Full-Modelling method with PyBird for DESI 2024 and beyond. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2025 (1) 139, 139-1. doi: 10.1088/1475-7516/2025/01/139
2025
Journal Article
Dark energy survey year 3 results: likelihood-free, simulation-based wCDM inference with neural compression of weak-lensing map statistics
Jeffrey, N., Whiteway, L., Gatti, M., Williamson, J., Alsing, J., Porredon, A., Prat, J., Doux, C., Jain, B., Chang, C., Cheng, T. -y, Kacprzak, T., Lemos, P., Alarcon, A., Amon, A., Bechtol, K., Becker, M. R., Bernstein, G. M., Campos, A., Rosell, A. Carnero, Chen, R., Choi, A., Derose, J., Drlica-Wagner, A., Eckert, K., Everett, S., Ferte, A., Gruen, D., Gruendl, R. A. ... Yamamoto, M. (2025). Dark energy survey year 3 results: likelihood-free, simulation-based wCDM inference with neural compression of weak-lensing map statistics. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 536 (2), 1303-1322. doi: 10.1093/mnras/stae2629
2025
Book Chapter
The expanding Universe
Davis, Tamara M. (2025). The expanding Universe. Reference Module in Materials Science and Materials Engineering. (pp. 1-16) Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/b978-0-443-21439-4.00121-8
2025
Journal Article
Constraints on compact objects from the Dark Energy Survey five-year supernova sample
Shah, P., Davis, T. M., Vincenzi, M., Armstrong, P., Brout, D., Camilleri, R., Galbany, L., García-Bellido, J., Gill, M. S. S., Lahav, O., Lee, J., Lidman, C., Möller, A., Sako, M., Sánchez, B. O., Sullivan, M., Whiteway, L., Wiseman, P., Allam, S., Aguena, M., Bocquet, S., Brooks, D., Burke, D. L., Rosell, A. Carnero, da Costa, L. N., Pereira, M. E. S., Desai, S., Dodelson, S., Doel, P. ... Weaverdyck, N. (2025). Constraints on compact objects from the Dark Energy Survey five-year supernova sample. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 536 (1), 946-961. doi: 10.1093/mnras/stae2614
2025
Journal Article
DESI 2024 IV: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from the Lyman alpha forest
Adame, A.G., Aguilar, J., Ahlen, S., Alam, S., Alexander, D.M., Alvarez, M., Alves, O., Anand, A., Andrade, U., Armengaud, E., Avila, S., Aviles, A., Awan, H., Bailey, S., Baltay, C., Bault, A., Bautista, J., Behera, J., BenZvi, S., Beutler, F., Bianchi, D., Blake, C., Blum, R., Brieden, S., Brodzeller, A., Brooks, D., Buckley-Geer, E., Burtin, E., Calderon, R. ... The DESI collaboration (2025). DESI 2024 IV: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from the Lyman alpha forest. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2025 (01) 124, 1-64. doi: 10.1088/1475-7516/2025/01/124
2024
Journal Article
Evaluating cosmological biases using photometric redshifts for Type Ia Supernova cosmology with the Dark Energy Survey Supernova Program
Chen, R. C., Scolnic, D., Vincenzi, M., Rykoff, E. S., Myles, J., Kessler, R., Popovic, B., Sako, M., Smith, M., Armstrong, P., Brout, D., Davis, T. M., Galbany, L., Lee, J., Lidman, C., Moeller, A., Sanchez, B. O., Sullivan, M., Qu, H., Wiseman, P., Abbott, T. M. C., Aguena, M., Allam, S., Alves, O., Andrade-Oliveira, F., Annis, J., Bacon, D., Brooks, D., Carnero Rosell, A. ... Weller, J. (2024). Evaluating cosmological biases using photometric redshifts for Type Ia Supernova cosmology with the Dark Energy Survey Supernova Program. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 536 (2), 1948-1966. doi: 10.1093/mnras/stae2703
2024
Journal Article
The MOST Hosts survey: spectroscopic observation of the host galaxies of ∼40,000 transients using DESI
Soumagnac, Maayane T., Nugent, Peter, Knop, Robert A., Ho, Anna Y. Q., Hohensee, William, Awbrey, Autumn, Andersen, Alexis, Aldering, Greg, Ventura, Matan, Aguilar, Jessica N., Ahlen, Steven, Benzvi, Segev Y., Brooks, David, Brout, Dillon, Claybaugh, Todd, Davis, Tamara M., Dawson, Kyle, de la Macorra, Axel, Dey, Arjun, Dey, Biprateep, Doel, Peter, Douglass, Kelly A., Forero-Romero, Jaime E., Gaztañaga, Enrique, Gontcho A Gontcho, Satya, Graur, Or, Guy, Julien, Hahn, ChangHoon, Honscheid, Klaus ... Zhou, Zhimin (2024). The MOST Hosts survey: spectroscopic observation of the host galaxies of ∼40,000 transients using DESI. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 275 (2) 22, 1-14. doi: 10.3847/1538-4365/ad76ae
2024
Journal Article
Modelling the impact of host galaxy dust on type Ia supernova distance measurements
Popovic, B., Wiseman, P., Sullivan, M., Smith, M., González-Gaitán, S., Scolnic, D., Duarte, J., Armstrong, P., Asorey, J., Brout, D., Carollo, D., Galbany, L., Glazebrook, K., Kelsey, L., Kessler, R., Lidman, C., Lee, J., Lewis, G. F., Möller, A., Nichol, R. C., Sánchez, B. O., Toy, M., Tucker, B. E., Vincenzi, M., Abbott, T. M.C., Aguena, M., Andrade-Oliveira, F., Bacon, D., Brooks, D. ... DES Collaboration (2024). Modelling the impact of host galaxy dust on type Ia supernova distance measurements. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 534 (3), 2263-2276. doi: 10.1093/mnras/stae2164
2024
Journal Article
Environmental quenching of low-surface-brightness galaxies near hosts from large magellanic cloud to milky way mass scales
Bhattacharyya, J., Peter, A. H. G., Martini, P., Mutlu-Pakdil, B., Drlica-Wagner, A., Pace, A. B., Strigari, L. E., Cheng, T.-Y., Roberts, D., Tanoglidis, D., Aguena, M., Alves, O., Andrade-Oliveira, F., Bacon, D., Brooks, D., Carnero Rosell, A., Carretero, J., da Costa, L. N., Pereira, M. E. S., Davis, T. M., Desai, S., Doel, P., Ferrero, I., Frieman, J., García-Bellido, J., Giannini, G., Gruen, D., Gruendl, R. A., Hinton, S. R. ... Dark Energy Survey Collaboration (2024). Environmental quenching of low-surface-brightness galaxies near hosts from large magellanic cloud to milky way mass scales. The Astrophysical Journal, 975 (2) 244, 1-17. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad79fe
2024
Journal Article
The dark energy survey supernova program: Cosmological analysis and systematic uncertainties
Vincenzi, M., Brout, D., Armstrong, P., Popovic, B., Taylor, G., Acevedo, M., Camilleri, R., Chen, R., Davis, T. M., Lee, J., Lidman, C., Hinton, S. R., Kelsey, L., Kessler, R., Möller, A., Qu, H., Sako, M., Sanchez, B., Scolnic, D., Smith, M., Sullivan, M., Wiseman, P., Asorey, J., Bassett, B. A., Carollo, D., Carr, A., Foley, R. J., Frohmaier, C., Galbany, L. ... DES Collaboration (2024). The dark energy survey supernova program: Cosmological analysis and systematic uncertainties. The Astrophysical Journal, 975 (1) 86, 1-31. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad5e6c
2024
Journal Article
The dark energy survey supernova program: Light curves and 5 yr data release
Sánchez, B. O., Brout, D., Vincenzi, M., Sako, M., Herner, K., Kessler, R., Davis, T. M., Scolnic, D., Acevedo, M., Lee, J., Möller, A., Qu, H., Kelsey, L., Wiseman, P., Armstrong, P., Rose, B., Camilleri, R., Chen, R., Galbany, L., Kovacs, E., Lidman, C., Popovic, B., Smith, M., Shah, P., Sullivan, M., Toy, M., Abbott, T. M. C., Aguena, M., Allam, S. ... DES Collaboration (2024). The dark energy survey supernova program: Light curves and 5 yr data release. The Astrophysical Journal, 975 (1) 5, 1-12. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad739a
2024
Journal Article
DESI 2024: reconstructing dark energy using crossing statistics with DESI DR1 BAO data
Calderon, R., Lodha, K., Shafieloo, A., Linder, E., Sohn, W., de Mattia, A., Cervantes-Cota, J.L., Crittenden, R., Davis, T.M., Ishak, M., Kim, A.G., Matthewson, W., Niz, G., Park, S., Aguilar, J., Ahlen, S., Allen, S., Brooks, D., Claybaugh, T., de la Macorra, A., Dey, A., Dey, B., Doel, P., Forero-Romero, J.E., Gaztañaga, E., Gontcho, S.Gontcho A., Honscheid, K., Howlett, C., Juneau, S. ... Zou, H. (2024). DESI 2024: reconstructing dark energy using crossing statistics with DESI DR1 BAO data. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2024 (10) 048, 1-28. doi: 10.1088/1475-7516/2024/10/048
2024
Journal Article
WiFeS observations of nearby southern Type Ia supernova host galaxies
Carr, Anthony, Davis, Tamara M., Camilleri, Ryan, Lidman, Chris, Freeman, Kenneth C. and Scolnic, Daniel (2024). WiFeS observations of nearby southern Type Ia supernova host galaxies. Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 41 e068. doi: 10.1017/pasa.2024.74
2024
Journal Article
SPT clusters with des and HST weak lensing. II. Cosmological constraints from the abundance of massive halos
Bocquet, S., Grandis, S., Bleem, L. E., Klein, M., Mohr, J. J., Schrabback, T., Abbott, T. M.C., Ade, P. A.R., Aguena, M., Alarcon, A., Allam, S., Allen, S. W., Alves, O., Amon, A., Anderson, A. J., Annis, J., Ansarinejad, B., Austermann, J. E., Avila, S., Bacon, D., Bayliss, M., Beall, J. A., Bechtol, K., Becker, M. R., Bender, A. N., Benson, B. A., Bernstein, G. M., Bhargava, S., Bianchini, F. ... Zuntz, J. (2024). SPT clusters with des and HST weak lensing. II. Cosmological constraints from the abundance of massive halos. Physical Review D, 110 (8) 083510, 1-26. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.110.083510
2024
Journal Article
Dark Energy Survey: Galaxy sample for the baryonic acoustic oscillation measurement from the final dataset
Mena-Fernández, J., Rodríguez-Monroy, M., Avila, S., Porredon, A., Chan, K. C., Camacho, H., Weaverdyck, N., Sevilla-Noarbe, I., Sanchez, E., Toribio San Cipriano, L., De Vicente, J., Ferrero, I., Cawthon, R., Carnero Rosell, A., Elvin-Poole, J., Giannini, G., Lee, S., Adamow, M., Bechtol, K., Drlica-Wagner, A., Gruendl, R. A., Hartley, W. G., Pieres, A., Ross, A. J., Rykoff, E. S., Sheldon, E., Yanny, B., Abbott, T. M.C., Aguena, M. ... Yamamoto, M. (2024). Dark Energy Survey: Galaxy sample for the baryonic acoustic oscillation measurement from the final dataset. Physical Review D, 110 (6) 063514. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.110.063514
2024
Journal Article
Dark energy survey: A 2.1% measurement of the angular baryonic acoustic oscillation scale at redshift zeff=0.85 from the final dataset
Abbott, T. M.C., Adamow, M., Aguena, M., Allam, S., Alves, O., Amon, A., Andrade-Oliveira, F., Asorey, J., Avila, S., Bacon, D., Bechtol, K., Bernstein, G. M., Bertin, E., Blazek, J., Bocquet, S., Brooks, D., Burke, D. L., Camacho, H., Carnero Rosell, A., Carollo, D., Carr, A., Carretero, J., Castander, F. J., Cawthon, R., Chan, K. C., Chang, C., Conselice, C., Costanzi, M., Crocce, M. ... DES Collaboration (2024). Dark energy survey: A 2.1% measurement of the angular baryonic acoustic oscillation scale at redshift zeff=0.85 from the final dataset. Physical Review D, 110 (6) 063515, 1-39. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevD.110.063515
2024
Journal Article
The Dark Energy Survey: cosmology results with ∼1500 new high-redshift type Ia Supernovae Using the full 5 yr Data Set
Abbott, T. M. C., Acevedo, M., Aguena, M., Alarcon, A., Allam, S., Alves, O., Amon, A., Andrade-Oliveira, F., Annis, J., Armstrong, P., Asorey, J., Avila, S., Bacon, D., Bassett, B. A., Bechtol, K., Bernardinelli, P. H., Bernstein, G. M., Bertin, E., Blazek, J., Bocquet, S., Brooks, D., Brout, D., Buckley-Geer, E., Burke, D. L., Camacho, H., Camilleri, R., Campos, A., Carnero Rosell, A., Carollo, D. ... Zhang, Y. (2024). The Dark Energy Survey: cosmology results with ∼1500 new high-redshift type Ia Supernovae Using the full 5 yr Data Set. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 973 (1) L14, 1-20. doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad6f9f
Funding
Current funding
Supervision
Availability
- Professor Tamara Davis is:
- Not available for supervision
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Weighing supermassive black holes with the Dark Energy Survey
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Benjamin Pope
-
Doctor Philosophy
Cosmology with the Dark Energy Survey
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Cullan Howlett
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-
Doctor Philosophy
Cosmological Constraints with large-scale structure: from LambdaCDM to light relics
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Cullan Howlett
-
Doctor Philosophy
Fundamental Plane distances from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Cullan Howlett
-
Doctor Philosophy
Observing Naked-Eye Stars and their Planets with TESS
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Benjamin Pope
-
Doctor Philosophy
Galaxy motions with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Khaled Said Soliman
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Doctor Philosophy
Using the motions of galaxies to probe fundamental physics
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Cullan Howlett
Completed supervision
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Cosmic echos: Reverberation mapping of high-redshift supermassive black holes
Principal Advisor
-
2021
Doctor Philosophy
Signatures of Companions in Transitional Discs: Spiral Arms, Cavities, and Dust Asymmetries
Principal Advisor
-
2020
Doctor Philosophy
Deciphering dark energy: The adventures of Steve, Barry, and Pippin.
Principal Advisor
-
2016
Doctor Philosophy
Echo hunting: using reverberation mapping of active galactic nuclei to probe black hole growth and cosmic expansion.
Principal Advisor
-
2025
Doctor Philosophy
Interpretable and Physically-Motivated Deep Learning Solutions for Large-Scale Structure Cosmology
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Rossana Ruggeri
-
2025
Doctor Philosophy
Completing the Puzzle: Unveiling Clues for Gravitational Wave Astrophysics and Cosmology with Simulations
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Cullan Howlett
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Whispers from the Big Bang-Cosmological Constraints from Galaxy Power Spectra
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Cullan Howlett
-
2023
Doctor Philosophy
Quantum control in probing relativistic effects and thermodynamics
Associate Advisor
Media
Enquiries
Contact Professor Tamara Davis directly for media enquiries about:
- Astronomy
- Astrophysics
- Cosmology
- Dark energy
- Dark Matter
- Exploding stars
- Physics
- Quantum gravity
- Stars - astrophysics
- Supernovae (exploding stars)
- Universe
- Vacuum energy
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