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About

Ann Elliott is a leading experimental physicist whose work is central to the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), a major Stage IV dark energy experiment. Her primary research focuses on precision instrumentation for cosmology, particularly the design and control of robotic systems for massive spectroscopic surveys. As a key contributor to the DESI collaboration, Elliott co-authored the foundational instrument design paper (2016, 234 citations), which describes the robotically-actuated focal plane containing 5,000 fibers that enables DESI to map over 30 million galaxies and quasars. This instrument is critical for studying baryon acoustic oscillations and the growth of cosmic structure through redshift-space distortions. Elliott also leads the development of the instrument control systems, as detailed in her 2018 paper on early testing and status. Her work ensures the reliable, real-time positioning of thousands of robotic fiber positioners—a technological feat that allows DESI to capture spectra from celestial objects with unprecedented efficiency. By advancing the hardware and control infrastructure for one of the most ambitious dark energy experiments ever built, Elliott is directly enabling transformative measurements of the universe's expansion history and the nature of dark energy.