Mike Hudson
Professor of Astrophysics & Cosmology
My research is in observational cosmology and galaxy formation and evolution. I measure the properties of dark matter and dark energy through gravitational lensing and cosmic flows, and I try to determine why galaxies make — and stop making — stars.
In the news · 20 July 2026
A decade of cosmic discovery: 61 million galaxies confirm a dark-matter, dark-energy universe
The UNIONS collaboration releases the largest weak-lensing analysis of the northern sky. Coverage at UW, CEA, the Globe and Mail and CTV News.
Research
Large-scale structure and cosmic flows
How is matter — dark and luminous — distributed across the cosmos, and how fast is structure growing? Read more →
Galaxies and halos
How are galaxies related to the dark-matter halos in which they live, and how do they co-evolve? Read more →
Quenching of star formation in galaxies
Why do some galaxies keep forming stars while others quench, and how fast does it happen when they fall into a cluster? Read more →
Techniques
Gravitational lensing
Background galaxies appear subtly distorted by the mass — mostly dark matter — along the line of sight. By stacking the distortions of millions of galaxies we can map that mass directly. My group leads the weak-lensing analysis of the UNIONS survey and contributes to Euclid. Read more →
Large-scale structure and cosmic flows
Galaxies trace the dark-matter density field and move in response to it. Comparing observed peculiar velocities to predictions from galaxy redshift surveys is a direct, low-redshift probe of how fast structure is growing. Explore the interactive 3D model of superclusters in the nearby universe we built from the 2M++ catalogue. Read more →
Orbit libraries
When a galaxy falls into a group or cluster, its orbital history determines when and how it stops forming stars. We use N-body simulations to build a statistical map between observed phase-space coordinates and orbital histories, then fit simple models of stripping and quenching to large galaxy samples to measure when and how fast the quenching happens. Read more →
The Hudson group
Postdocs and graduate students at the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics
L–R: Ariel Broderick, Martine Campbell, Mike Hudson, Darshak Patel, Pierre Burger, Ian Roberts, Amber Hollinger (July 2024)
Current group
Ian Roberts
Banting Postdoctoral Fellow
Jiapeng Zhang
Ph.D. candidate
Hardik Kuralkar
Ph.D. candidate
Ben Radmore
M.Sc. candidate
Joining the group
I welcome applications for graduate positions. Essential prerequisites are an undergraduate degree in physics/astronomy and experience with coding; undergraduate research (e.g. a senior honours thesis) is a bonus. Undergrads should consult the Department's page on Undergraduate Research Awards.
Alumni
Selected former students and postdocs (* = co-supervised).
| Name | Degree / Position | Year | Current position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Elvin-Poole | Postdoc | 2026 | Lead Astronomical Software Developer at CanDIAPL |
| Hunter Martin | Ph.D. | 2026 | Postdoc at U Cincinnati |
| Pierre Burger | Postdoc | 2025 | Machine Learning Scientist at SOVRA |
| Martine Campbell | M.Sc. | 2025 | Ph.D. candidate at IFAE Barcelona |
| Darshak Patel | M.Sc. | 2025 | — |
| Amber Hollinger | Ph.D. | 2024 | Postdoc at Australian National University |
| Jordan Ducatel | M.Sc.* | 2024 | Product Information Analyst at Grainger |
| Andrew Reeves | Ph.D. | 2023 | Postdoc at York University |
| Isaac Spitzer | Ph.D. | 2022 | Software Engineer at STScI |
| Supranta Boruah | Ph.D.* | 2020 | Postdoc at U. Penn |
| Kyle Oman | M.Sc. | 2013 | Faculty, Durham University |
| Laura Parker | Ph.D. | 2005 | Faculty, McMaster University |
| …plus many more — view the full alumni list → | |||
News & highlights
Recent press coverage
A decade of cosmic discovery: 61 million galaxies confirm a dark-matter, dark-energy universe
The UNIONS collaboration releases the largest weak-lensing analysis of the northern sky — 61 million galaxy shapes measured over 3,500 square degrees of Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope MegaCam imaging — providing new data that supports the standard cosmological model of dark matter and dark energy. My group leads the weak-lensing team of UNIONS; the underlying papers are collected in the UNIONS ADS library.
Coverage: University of Waterloo · CEA · Globe and Mail · CTV News (video).
First "image" of a dark-matter web connecting galaxies
Astrophysicists Mike Hudson and Seth Epps captured the first composite image of a dark-matter bridge connecting galaxies. Read the paper.
Coverage: CBC News · Forbes · Newsweek · VICE / Motherboard · Engadget · International Business Times · Canadian Geographic · Space.com · Live Science · Phys.org · Science Daily · EarthSky · Universe Today · Sci.News · Space Daily · ZME Science.
3D master map of the universe
A spherical map of galaxy superclusters spanning nearly two billion light-years — the most complete picture of our cosmic neighbourhood to date. Read the paper.
Coverage: TechRadar · Space.com · New Atlas · Phys.org · Science Daily · SpaceNews · Astronomy Now · Sci.News.