CV

Research Interests

Cosmology; statistical and machine learning methodology in astrophysics and cosmology; Bayesian large-scale structure inference; field-level inference; symbolic regression; dark matter; dark energy; galaxy formation; astrophysical tests of fundamental physics; modified gravity; cosmological hydrodynamical simulations.

Employment

• Career Development Fellowship in Astrophysics, Christ Church, University of Oxford, 2026-present
• College Lecturer, Brasenose College, University of Oxford, 2025-26
• Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, 2025-26
• Postdoctoral Fellow, CNRS & Sorbonne Université, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, 2022-2025
• Covid Response Officer, Oriel College, University of Oxford, 2021-2022
• Graduate Teaching and Research Scholar, Oriel College, University of Oxford, 2020-2022

Education

• DPhil in Astrophysics, Oriel College, University of Oxford 2019-2022
  • Thesis: Fundamental Physics from Galaxies
  • Supervisors: Prof. Pedro Ferreira and Dr. Harry Desmond
• MA, MSci in Natural Sciences, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, 2015-2019
  • Results: Class 1, 86.2%, Rank 3/92
  • Thesis: The conformal boundary at the end of the universe
  • Supervisor: Dr. Will Handley

Awards and Scholarships

• Royal Astronomical Society Early Career Award for Astronomy, 2026
• Career Development Fellowship in Astrophysics, Christ Church, University of Oxford, 2026–2031
• Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS), 2026–
• Nicholas Kurti Junior Research Fellowship, Brasenose College, University of Oxford, 2025–2028
• International Astronomical Union (IAU) The Gruber Foundation (TGF) Fellowship in Astrophysics, 2025–2026
• The Beecroft Fellowship in Cosmology, University of Oxford, 2025 (postponed until 2027)
• The Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellowship at Oxford, University of Oxford, 2025–2027
• Best Astrophysics/Cosmology poster, PHYSTAT - Statistics meets Machine Learning \hfill 2024
• Graduate Teaching and Research Scholar, Oriel College, Oxford 2020–2022
• Senior Scholar, Trinity College, Cambridge 2016–19
• Bronze Medal, 46th International Physics Olympiad, Mumbai 2015
• Exceptional mathematical performance, British Physics Olympiad 2015

Publications

Learning the Universe: The Structure of Dust Attenuation Curves in Galaxy Simulations

L. Sommovigo, D.J. Bartlett, R.K. Cochrane, M. Ho, C.C. Lovell, R.S. Somerville (2026). "Learning the Universe: The Structure of Dust Attenuation Curves in Galaxy Simulations." ApJ 1008 218.

Evaluation of Population Initialization Methods for Genetic Programming-based Symbolic Regression

L. Kammerer, G. Kronberger, D.J. Bartlett, H. Desmond, P.G. Ferreira, S. Winkler (2026). "Evaluation of Population Initialization Methods for Genetic Programming-based Symbolic Regression." arXiv:2606.31990.

The Degeneracy Distillery

T.L. Makinen, D.J. Bartlett, N. Jeffrey, B.D. Wandelt (2026). "The Degeneracy Distillery." arXiv:2606.23838.

CMBolic: Symbolic emulators for the Cosmic Microwave Background. I. Lensing

D.M.J. Vokrouhlicky, C. Skordis, D.J. Bartlett, H. Desmond, P.G. Ferreira (2026). "CMBolic: Symbolic emulators for the Cosmic Microwave Background. I. Lensing." arXiv:2606.07745.

KiDS-Legacy: WIMP dark matter constraints from the cross-correlation of weak lensing and Fermi-LAT gamma rays

S. Zhang, H. Hildebrandt, Z. Yan, T. Tröster, A. Aravinthan, M. Asgari, D.J. Bartlett, M. Bilicki, D. Elsässer, C. Heymans, B. Joachimi, L. Moscardini, D. Neumann, A. Paopiamsap, R. Reischke, and B. Stölzner (2026). "KiDS-Legacy: WIMP dark matter constraints from the cross-correlation of weak lensing and Fermi-LAT gamma rays." A&A, 710, A80.

Guiding Multi-Objective Genetic Programming with Description Length Improves Symbolic Regression Solutions

G. Kronberger, F. Olivetti de Franca, D.J. Bartlett, H. Desmond, P.G. Ferreira (2026). "Guiding Multi-Objective Genetic Programming with Description Length Improves Symbolic Regression Solutions." arXiv:2605.22374.

The functional form of galaxy and halo luminosity and mass functions

A. Ford, H. Desmond, D.J. Bartlett and P.G. Ferreira (2026). "The functional form of galaxy and halo luminosity and mass functions." arXiv:2604.23236.

Symbolically regressing dark matter halo profiles using weak lensing

A. Martín, T. Yasin, D.J. Bartlett, H. Desmond and P.G. Ferreira (2026). "Symbolically regressing dark matter halo profiles using weak lensing." arXiv:2601.05203.

Introduction to Symbolic Regression in the Physical Sciences

D.J. Bartlett, H. Desmond, P.G. Ferreira and G. Kronberger (2026). "Introduction to Symbolic Regression in the Physical Sciences." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 384(2317):20240600, 03 2026. ISSN 1364-503X.

The Cosmological Dipole in Tilted Anisotropic Universes

A. Martín, C. Skordis, D.J. Bartlett, H. Desmond, P.G. Ferreira and T. Yasin (2026). "The Cosmological Dipole in Tilted Anisotropic Universes." Phys. Rev. D 114, 023526.

Constraining dark matter halo profiles with symbolic regression

A. Martín, T. Yasin, D.J. Bartlett, H. Desmond and P.G. Ferreira (2026). "Constraining dark matter halo profiles with symbolic regression." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 384(2317):20250090, 04 2026b. ISSN 1364-503X.

Symbolic Regression and Differentiable Fits in Beyond the Standard Model Physics

S. AbdusSalam, S. Abel, D.J. Bartlett, and M. Crispim Romao (2026). "Symbolic Regression and Differentiable Fits in Beyond the Standard Model Physics." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 384(2317):20240593, 04 2026..

Symbolic Emulators for Cosmology: Accelerating Cosmological Analyses Without Sacrificing Precision

D.J. Bartlett, and S. Pandey (2026). "Symbolic Emulators for Cosmology: Accelerating Cosmological Analyses Without Sacrificing Precision." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 384(2317):20240585, 04 2026. ISSN 1364-503X.

syren-baryon: Analytic emulators for the impact of baryons on the matter power spectrum

L. Kammerer, D.J. Bartlett, G. Kronberger, H. Desmond and P.G. Ferreira (2025). "syren-baryon: Analytic emulators for the impact of baryons on the matter power spectrum." A&A, 701, A284 .

SYREN-NEW: Precise formulae for the linear and nonlinear matter power spectra with massive neutrinos and dynamical dark energy

C. Sui, D.J. Bartlett, S. Pandey, H. Desmond, P.G. Ferreira and B.D. Wandelt (2025). "syren-new: Precise formulae for the linear and nonlinear matter power spectra with massive neutrinos and dynamical dark energy." A&A, 698, A1.

The Velocity Field Olympics: Assessing velocity field reconstructions with direct distance tracers

R. Stiskalek, H. Desmond, J. Devriendt, A. Slyz, G. Lavaux, M.J. Hudson, D.J. Bartlett, and H.M. Courtois. (2025). "The Velocity Field Olympics: Assessing velocity field reconstructions with direct distance tracers." arXiv:2502.00121.

COmoving Computer Acceleration (COCA): N-body simulations in an emulated frame of reference

D.J. Bartlett, M. Chiarenza, L. Doeser and F. Leclercq (2025). "COmoving Computer Acceleration (COCA): N-body simulations in an emulated frame of reference." A&A, 694, A287.

Bye-bye, Local-in-matter-density Bias: The Statistics of the Halo Field Are Poorly Determined by the Local Mass Density

D.J. Bartlett, M. Ho and B.D. Wandelt (2024). "Bye-bye, Local-in-matter-density Bias: The Statistics of the Halo Field Are Poorly Determined by the Local Mass Density." ApJL 977 L44.

CHARM: Creating Halos with Auto-Regressive Multi-stage networks

S. Pandey, C. Modi, B.D. Wandelt, D.J. Bartlett, A.E. Bayer, G.L. Bryan, M. Ho, G. Lavaux, T.L. Makinen and F. Villaescusa-Navarro (2024). "CHARM: Creating Halos with Auto-Regressive Multi-stage networks." Phys. Rev. D 112, 103503.

Scant evidence for thawing quintessence

W.J. Wolf, C. García-García, D.J. Bartlett and P.G. Ferreira (2024). "Scant evidence for thawing quintessence." Phys. Rev. D, 110(8):083528.

Statistical Patterns in the Equations of Physics and the Emergence of a Meta-Law of Nature

A. Constantin, D.J. Bartlett, H. Desmond and P.G. Ferreira (2026). "Statistical Patterns in the Equations of Physics and the Emergence of a Meta-Law of Nature." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 384(2317):20250091, 04 2026. ISSN 1364-503X.

A precise symbolic emulator of the linear matter power spectrum

D.J. Bartlett, L. Kammerer, G. Kronberger, H. Desmond, P.G. Ferreira, B.D. Wandelt, B. Burlacu, D. Alonso and M. Zennaro (2023). "A precise symbolic emulator of the linear matter power spectrum." A&A 686:A209.

syren-halofit: A fast, interpretable, high-precision formula for the LCDM nonlinear matter power spectrum

D.J. Bartlett, B.D. Wandelt, M. Zennaro, P.G. Ferreira and H. Desmond (2024). "syren-halofit: A fast, interpretable, high-precision formula for the $\Lambda$CDM nonlinear matter power spectrum." A&A 686:A150.

The Inefficiency of Genetic Programming for Symbolic Regression

G. Kronberger, Fabricio Olivetti de Franca, H. Desmond, D. J. Bartlett, and L. Kammerer (2024). "The Inefficiency of Genetic Programming for Symbolic Regression." arXiv:2404.17292.

ltu-ili: An All-in-One Framework for Implicit Inference in Astrophysics and Cosmology

M. Ho, D.J. Bartlett et al. (2024). "ltu-ili: An All-in-One Framework for Implicit Inference in Astrophysics and Cosmology." The Open Journal of Astrophysics, 7, 7 2024.

Marginalised Normal Regression: Unbiased curve fitting in the presence of x-errors

D.J. Bartlett and H. Desmond (2023). "Marginalised Normal Regression: Unbiased curve fitting in the presence of x-errors." The Open Journal of Astrophysics, 6, 11 2023..

Optimal inflationary potentials

Tomas Sousa, D.J. Bartlett, H. Desmond and P.G. Ferreira (2024). "Optimal inflationary potentials." Phys. Rev. D 109, 083524.

Constraints on dark matter and astrophysics from tomographic gamma-ray cross-correlations

A. Paopiamsap, D. Alonso, D.J. Bartlett and M. Bilicki (2023). "Constraints on dark matter and astrophysics from tomographic $\gamma$-ray cross-correlations." Phys. Rev. D 109, 103517.

Priors for symbolic regression

D.J. Bartlett, H. Desmond and P.G. Ferreira (2023). "Priors for symbolic regression." In Proceedings of the Companion Conference on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 2402–2411.

Modeling and testing screening mechanisms in the laboratory and in space

V. Vardanyan and D. J. Bartlett (2023). "Modeling and testing screening mechanisms in the laboratory and in space." Universe 2023, 9, 340.

Exhaustive Symbolic Regression

D.J. Bartlett, H. Desmond and P.G. Ferreira (2023). "Exhaustive Symbolic Regression." In IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation 28, 950.

No evidence for p- or d-wave dark matter annihilation from local large-scale structure

A. Kostic, D.J. Bartlett and H. Desmond (2023). "No evidence for p- or d-wave dark matter annihilation from local large-scale structure." Phys. Rev. D, 113:063539.

On the functional form of the radial acceleration relation

H. Desmond, D.J. Bartlett and P.G. Ferreira (2023). "On the functional form of the radial acceleration relation." MNRAS 521(2):1817-1831.

Constraints on dark matter annihilation and decay from the large-scale structure of the nearby Universe

D.J. Bartlett, A. Kostic, H. Desmond, J. Jasche and G. Lavaux (2022). "Constraints on dark matter annihilation and decay from the large-scale structure of the nearby Universe." Phys. Rev. D, 106(10)110352.

The scatter in the galaxy–halo connection: a machine learning analysis

R. Stiskalek, D.J. Bartlett, H. Desmond, and D. Anbajagane (2022). "The scatter in the galaxy–halo connection: a machine learning analysis." MNRAS, 514(3):4026–4045.

Improved cosmological fits with quantized primordial power spectra

D.J. Bartlett, W.J. Handley and A.N. Lasenby (2022). "Improved cosmological fits with quantized primordial power spectra." Phys. Rev. D, 105(8):083515.

Perturbations and the future conformal boundary

A.N. Lasenby, W.J. Handley, D.J. Bartlett, and C.S. Negreanu (2022). "Perturbations and the future conformal boundary." Phys. Rev. D, 105(8):083514.

Constraints on quantum gravity and the photon mass from gamma ray bursts

D.J. Bartlett, H. Desmond, P.G. Ferreira and J. Jasche (2021). "Constraints on quantum gravity and the photon mass from gamma ray bursts." Phys. Rev. D, 104(10):10351.

Constraints on equivalence principle violation from gamma ray bursts

D.J. Bartlett, D. Bergsdal, H. Desmond, P.G. Ferreira and J. Jasche (2021). "Constraints on equivalence principle violation from gamma ray bursts." Phys. Rev. D, 104(8):084025.

Calibrating galaxy formation effects in galactic tests of fundamental physics

D.J. Bartlett, H. Desmond and P.G. Ferreira (2021). "Calibrating galaxy formation effects in galactic tests of fundamental physics." Phys. Rev. D, 103(12):123502.

Constraints on Galileons from the positions of supermassive black holes

D.J. Bartlett, H. Desmond and P.G. Ferreira (2021). "Constraints on Galileons from the positions of supermassive black holes" Phys. Rev. D, 103(2):023523.

Spatially offset black holes in the Horizon-AGN simulation and comparison to observations

D.J. Bartlett, H. Desmond, J. Devriendt, P.G. Ferreira and A. Slyz. "Spatially offset black holes in the Horizon-AGN simulation and comparison to observations." MNRAS, 500(4):4639–4657.

Talks

Constraining the photon’s dispersion relation

October 08, 2021

Galactic-Scale Tests of Fundamental Physics

December 01, 2021

Constraining Dark Matter Properties with Large Scale Structure

November 03, 2022

Testing Fundamental Physics with Gamma Ray Bursts

May 17, 2023

Talk at Webinaires de l'Action Dark Energy,

Learning Equations from Data: Exhaustive Symbolic Regression

May 24, 2023

Towards Velocity Field Reconstructions with BORG

November 02, 2023

The terms Eisenstein and Hu missed

November 28, 2023

Teaching

Assessments - University of Oxford (2025-present)

• MPhys expert assessor for Astrophysics projects
• MMathPhys dissertation assessor
• DPhil Confirmation of Status Reviewer

Tutor - Stanford in Oxford - University of Oxford and Stanford University (2025)

• Designed and delivered a tailored term-long Astrophysics tutorial programme for a Stanford University student on exchange at Oxford.

College Lecturer - Brasenose College, University of Oxford (2025-2026)

• Courses tutored:
  • B2 Symmetry and Relativity (3rd year Physics);
• Ran tutorials, marked problem sheets, set and marked mock examinations.
• Jointly ran physics interview for selection of undergraduate students in Physics and Physics and Philosophy. Wrote and delivered questions for these interviews and assessed candidates’ performance.

Graduate Teaching and Research Scholar - Oriel College, University of Oxford (2020-2022)

• Courses tutored:
  • A3 Quantum Physics (2nd year Physics).
  • B4 Nuclear and Particle Physics (3rd year Physics).
• Ran tutorials, marked problem sheets, set and marked mock examinations.
• Jointly ran mathematical interview for selection of undergraduate students in Physics and Physics and Philosophy. Wrote and delivered questions for these interviews and assessed candidates’ performance.

British Team Coach - British Physics Olympiad (2017-present)

• Led sessions on a variety of topics. Planning content, writing questions and creating resources.

Service

Collaborations

• Organiser, The Royal Society Discussion Meeting on ``Symbolic Regression in the Physical Sciences’’, April 2025
• Journal Referee for A\&A, ApJ, IEEE TAI, IEEE TEVC, JCAP, Nature Communications, NeurIPS, PRL, PRD, PLB, The Open Journal of Astrophysics, Machine Learning: Science and Technology.
• Grant Referee for DiRAC, ERC, UKRI
• Learning the Universe 2022-Present
• Aquila Consortium 2021-Present