He is best known for his research on dynamical processes in cosmology and galaxy formation/galaxy evolution.
He is a world expert in simulating mergers of galaxies to demonstrate the expected appearance and morphology of the resulting body.
He defined the "Hernquist Profile", which is an analytic expression for the distribution of dark matter in galaxies.
[6] Hernquist was awarded the 2020 Gruber Prize in Cosmology jointly with Volker Springel, who together have made computer simulations "an indispensable tool for cosmologists, allowing them to test theories and locate fertile areas for further research.
This United States astronomer article is a stub.