Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki

Research Associate - Cosmology
Princeton University - 2005

Ph.D. - Cosmology
Queen's University at Kingston, Canada - 2002

B.S. - Physics
University of Montreal - 1998

B.A.Sc - Computer Science
University at Quebec of Montreal - 1994

Cristhian Garcia-Quintero, Mustapha Ishak, Orion Ning. 2021. Current constraints on deviations from General Relativity using binning in redshift and scale. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 12, 018 (2020). Paper available at arXiv:2010.12519 2020 - publications

First detection of the GI-type of intrinsic alignments of galaxies using the self-calibration   method in a photometric galaxy survey.  Eske M. Pedersen, Ji Yao, Mustapha Ishak, Pengjie Zhang. Astrophysical Journal Letters 899 L5 (2020). arXiv:1911.01614   2020 - publications

Separating the Intrinsic Alignment Signal and the Lensing Signal using Self-Calibration in Photo-z Surveys with KiDS450 and KV450 Data. Ji Yao, Eske M. Pedersen, Mustapha Ishak, Pengjie Zhang, Anish Agashe, Haojie Xu, Huanyuan Shan.  Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomy Society 495 (2020) 3900. arXiv:1911.01582 2020 - publications

Cosmological discordances III: more on measure properties, Large-Scale-Structure constraints, the Hubble constant and Planck.  Cristhian Garcia-Quintero, Mustapha Ishak, Logan Fox, Weikang Lin.  Physical Review D 100 (2019) 123538. arXiv:1910.01608.  2019 - Publication

ISiTGR: Testing deviations from GR at cosmological scales including dynamical dark energy, massive neutrinos, functional or binned parametrizations, and spatial curvature.  Cristhian Garcia-Quintero, Mustapha Ishak, Logan Fox, Jason Dossett. Physical Review D 100 (2019) 103530. arXiv:1908.00290  2019 - Publication

Core Cosmology Library: Precision Cosmological Predictions for LSST.  Nora Elisa Chisari et al. Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 241, 1 (2019) 2-40. arXiv:1812.05995 2019 - Publication

Testing General Relativity at Cosmological Scales, Mustapha Ishak.Invited review article in Living Reviews in Relativity 22, 1-204. (2019) 2019 - Publication

Self-calibration method for II and GI types of intrinsic alignments, Ji Yao, Mustapha Ishak, Michael Troxel.  Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 483, 1, 276 (2018). 2018 - Publication

Lancelot M. Berkeley Prize for Meritorious Work in Astronomy - Group Prize with The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) collaboration [2026]

Piper Professor of Texas Award - Comptroller's office of the State Government of Texas [2024]

Provost’s Award for Faculty Excellence in Graduate Research Mentoring - University of Texas at Dallas [2023]

UT System Regent's' Outstanding Teaching Award - University of Texas System [2022]

Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) - American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) [2021]

Department of Energy Excellence Award for DESI (Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument) Collaboration Team - Department of Energy [2021]

President's Teaching Excellence Award - University of Texas at Dallas [2021]

Collaboration Builder Status Recognition - Legacy Survey of Space and Time – Dark Energy Science Collaboration [2020]

NSM Dean's Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award - University of Texas at Dallas [2018]

Robert S. Hyer Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Research - Texas Section, American Physics Society [2013]

Professor
The University of Texas at Dallas [2015–Present]

Associate Professor
The University of Texas at Dallas [2011–2015]

Assistant Professor
The University of Texas at Dallas [2005–2011]

Research Associate
Princeton University [2003–2005]

Lecturer
Princeton University [2003–2004]

Teaching Assistant
Queen's University [1998–2000]

Research Assistant
Queen's University [1998–2002]

Recognitions

• Distinguished Chair in Natural Sciences and Mathematics, endowed by Drs. Basheer and Shakila Ahmed
• Granted Builder Status for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Collaboration with quote: “For outstanding contributions to the cosmological interpretation of DESI results”.
• Most cited research paper in 2024 in Astrophysics and High Energy Physics (SPIRES-HEP database). Adame et al. “DESI 2024 IV: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from the Lyman alpha forest.”
• Journal Paper voted by the Editorial Board of Classical and Quantum Gravity Journal as one of the journal's highlights of 2002. Article title: Interactive Geometric Database, Including Exact Solutions of Einstein's Field Equations, Mustapha Ishak and Kayll Lake, Classical and Quantum Gravity 19, 505 (2002). 
  
  
• Journal paper selected by Chief Editor Gerardus 't Hooft (Nobel Laureate in Physics 1999) as one of the highlights of 2008 of the Foundation of Physics Journal. Article title: Remarks on the formulation of the cosmological constant/dark energy questions. Mustapha Ishak. Foundation of Physics Journal, 37:1470-1498,2007. 
  
  
•  Journal paper highlighted at Physical Review Letters as Editors' suggestion and selected for a synopsis in Spotlighting Exceptional Research in Physics (2013) website of the American Physical Society. "Stringent Restriction from the Growth of Large-Scale Structure on Apparent Acceleration in Inhomogeneous Cosmological Models", Mustapha Ishak, Austin Peel, and M. A. Troxel. Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 251302 (2013).
  
  
• Invited review article in the prestigious Living Reviews in Relativity journal to cover the topic of "Testing General Relativity at Cosmological Scales." Living Reviews in Relativity 22 (2019) 1-204. arXiv:1806.10122. 
  
  
• Opening plenary talk in 2019 for the Centennial International Conference celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 1919 famous solar-eclipse expedition and experiment that confirmed the theory of General Relativity of Einstein. The conference took place in the town of Sobral in Brazil in May 2019 (exactly 100 years after the original expedition of 2019), where, at the time, the geographical location of the town allowed the best measurement of the deflection of light by the Sun during the eclipse. A key element is that Einstein’s theory of gravity predicts a deflection of light twice the size of that predicted by Newton’s gravity, and the Sobral’s measurement confirmed exactly that! The result in 1919 was a turning point in history, confirming for good the theory of General Relativity of Einstein. The event in 2019 was sponsored by the International Union of Astronomy, involved many physics and astronomy societies, and was echoed all over the world, reaching the New York Times and the Washington Post. The event was a real journey through space and time. 
  
  

Could dark energy cause the universe to collapse?

 In this CBS News interview, Professor Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki discusses groundbreaking data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). 

2025's Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics

Latest DESI Breakthrough Results (Skip to 5:48)

Explorers of Space, Deep Earth Named AAAS Fellows for Stellar Work

Two University of Texas at Dallas faculty members in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics have been elected 2021 fellows of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

NASA Funds Investigation of a Cosmic Mystery

Prof Explores Universe Through Gravity Lens Studies

Professional societies

• Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS)
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• Member of the American Astronomical Society (AAS)
• Full Member with Builder Status of the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC)
• Full Member with Builder Status of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument Collaboration (DESI)

Current Ph.D. students:

1. Avijit Brera (graduation expected in 2027)
2. Nisha Kamble (graduation expected in 2030)
3. Rylee Palos (graduation expected in 2030)
4. Kristian Gonzales (graduation expected in 2031)
5. Seth Rippentrop (graduation expected in 2031)

Graduated Ph.D. Students:

1. James Richardson (graduated in May 2008). Working as a computer visualization programmer in the corporate sector in the Dallas area, TX.
2. Jacob Moldenhaeur (graduated in May 2010). Assistant Professor of Physics at Francis Marion University, SC (2011-2013). Now, Associate Professor and Chair of Physics Department at University of Dallas, TX.
3. Anthony Nwankwo (graduated in May 2011). Patent holder in electronics. Started his own enterprise in the Dallas area, TX.
4. Jason Dossett (graduated in May 2013). Postdoctoral research fellow at University of Queensland, Australia (2013-2015) and INAF Institute of Astrophysics in Brera, Italy (2014-2016). Now, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Defense Analyses, Washington, DC.
5. Michael Troxel (graduated in May 2014). Postdoctoral research fellow at Manchester University (2014-2016) and Ohio State University (2016-2018). Working as Associate Professor in Physics, Duke University, NC.
6. Austin Peel (graduated in May 2015). Postdoctoral Research Position in Astrophysics at Laboratoire d'Astrophysique, Saclay, France (2015-2019) and Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (2019-present), Switzerland.
7. Tharake Wijenayake (graduated in May 2016). Working as Senior Analyst in the corporate sector at Zack’s Investment, Chicago, IL.
8. Ji Yao (graduated in May 2018). Working as postdoctoral research fellow at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.
9. Weikang Lin (graduated in August 2018). Postdoctoral research fellow at North Carolina State University (2018-2021) and Shanghai University (2021-2023). Starting a faculty position at Yunnan University in 2023, China.
10. Eske Pederson (graduated in August 2021). Working as postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University, MA.
11. Anish Agashe (graduated in August 2022). Working as Assistant Professor at St. Mary's College of Maryland.
12. Cristhian Garcia Quintero (graduated in May 2024). Working as postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University, MA.
13. Leonel Medina Varela (graduated in May 2025). Working as postdoctoral research fellow at Carnegie Mellon University, PA.
14. Yunan Xie (graduated in December 2025). Conducting interviews in the corporate AI-Computing sector after just completing his dissertation defense.

Masters students supervised

1. Allison
2. Jeffrey Scott
3. John Thompson
4. Delilah Whittington
5. Brian Troup
6. Lee Caps
7. Kristhian Gonzalez
8. Aankit Das

Undergraduate student supervised for research projects

1. Katherine Morgan (undergraduate Thesis/research, 2006)
2. Lee Isaac Trawick, (undergraduate Thesis/research, 2006)
3. Sriram Nagaraj, (undergraduate Thesis/research, 2006)
4. Wendy Gartenberg, (undergraduate Thesis/research, 2007)
5. John Wilson (undergraduate Thesis/research, 2007)
6. Austin Peel (undergraduate Thesis/research, 2007)
7. Jason Dossett, (undergraduate Thesis/research, 2007 and 2008)
8. Tan Lee, (undergraduate Thesis/research, 2008)
9. John Thompson (Undergraduate Thesis/Research, 2008)
10. Lee Caps (undergraduate Thesis/research, 2009)
11. Thomas Griffins (Undergraduate Research Project, 2012)
12. Nathan Newton (Undergraduate Research Project, 2012)
13. Jonathan Woodbury (undergraduate Thesis/research, 2013)
14. Victor Lee (Undergraduate Research Project, 2015)
15. Joseph Burnet (undergraduate Thesis/research, 2015)
16. Cristhian Quintero (undergraduate research, 2016)
17. Logan Fox (undergraduate research, Spring and Fall 2017)
18. Lindsey Rayborn (undergraduate research, Spring and Fall 2016)
19. Leonel Medina (undergraduate research, 2018)
20. Aaron Boggs (REU: undergraduate research, Summer 2019)
21. Calvin Ross (undergraduate research, 2019-2020).
22. Orion Ning (REU: undergraduate research, Summer 2020)
23. Lael Verace (REU: undergraduate research, Summer 2021)
24. Seth Rippentrop (undergraduate research, 2023, 2024)