Yao-Yuan Mao

Mao's research answers key questions about the nature of dark matter, galaxy formation physics, and the uniqueness of our own Milky Way. In particular, Mao uses astronomical surveys and numerical simulations to study low-mass galaxies in the nearby Universe, modeling the relation between these galaxies and their host dark matter halos to learn about the underlying cosmic structures.

Mao co-leads the SAGA Survey, a galaxy redshift survey that characterizes satellite systems around Galactic analogs. Mao is also an active member in the Rubin Observatory science community. In the Rubin LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration (DESC), Mao is a member of the 2025-27 Management Team as the Deputy Computing and Simulations Coordinator, and previously co-led the Science Release and Validation Working Group, the Dark Matter Working Group, and the Data Access Team. Mao also served as the Collaboration Council Chair and the Hack/Sprint Coordinator in DESC. Mao was credited the Builder Status by DESC in 2019.