Taylor Hoyt

Assistant Professional Researcher (equivalent to Research Professor) at UC Berkeley; LBL affiliate

My PhD research was on the extragalactic distance scale and the measurement of the universe's present day expansion rate. I used a class of stars called red giants to measure the distances to galaxies that hosted exploding supernovae, which we could then use to measure the expansion of the universe.

As an LBL postdoc in the Supernova Cosmology Project, I began more closely studying our use of supernovae to constrain the expansion rate.

I am now an Assistant Prof. Researcher at UC Berkeley, where I will continue along both endeavors, as well as contribute on the scientific side of the Lazuli Space Observatory, a Schmidt Foundation funded 3m telescope set to launch in 2029.

Recent Updates

Assistant Researcher (Fall 2026)

Began as an Assistant Professional Researcher at UC Berkeley, maintaining my LBL association as an affiliate.

JWST Cycle 1 Program to Measure the Hubble Constant

Our JWST Cycle 1 Results were published during the 2025-26 period. Our nominal adopted value of H0 was 70.4 +/- 1.9 km/s/Mpc, in significantly less tension with Lambda CDM than some other measurements.

This program was designed to test the use of three astrophysical distance indicators using JWST's new and unprecedentedly sensitive instrumentation. See the Research page for summaries of my previous work on these distance indicators as observed in the infrared, which provides some of the foundation for this JWST program.

HST Cycle 29 Program

After endless scheduling issues caused by HST's tragic degradation in gyro health, the final observations of my HST program were acquired. The analysis is underway and will soon be submitted for publication.

I was awarded time as PI of a Hubble Space Telescope program to calibrate the Tip of the Red Giant Branch method. This program should provide the most precise calibration of the TRGB method as measured with the Hubble Space Telescope.

Recent Publications

The Chicago Carnegie Hubble Program: Improving the Calibration of Type Ia Supernovae with JWST Measurements of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch. Hoyt, T. J., Jang, I. S., Freedman, W. L., et al (2026ApJ..1002...11H/)

Sub-per-cent determination of the brightness at the tip of the red giant branch. Hoyt, T, (2023). Nature Astronomy. (DOI: s41550-023-01913-1)

The Lazuli Space Observatory: Architecture & Capabilities. Roy A., et al. (2026, in Press) (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2026arXiv260102556R)

Distances to Local Group Galaxies via Population II, Stellar Distance Indicators. I and II. Tran, Hoyt, et al., and Oakes, Hoyt et al., (2022) (ApJ...935...34T, ApJ...929..116O).

The Tip of the Red Giant Branch

Stars about the mass of the Sun will reach an explosive end to their first ascent of the Red giant branch (RGB). These RGB stars provide us with an astronomical ruler with which we can measure distances to galaxies as far out as 60 million lightyears.

Observations with Space Telescopes

I reduce and analyze space telescope data, including those from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes (HST and JWST, respectively). My technical work is on accurate Point Spread function photometry (PSF) of resolved point sources.

Type Ia Supernovae

I am investigating new ways to standardize Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) for use in measuring the expansion rate and how we can improve upon previous methods in terms of both experimental accuracy and observational efficiency.

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