This groundbreaking model of the universe called Illustris was created by a team of post-doc researchers headed up by Faculty member, Lars Hernquist, and graduate student, Dylan Nelson.  This work was first described in a recent Nature article.

"It's hard to describe billions of years of cosmic history. But scientists have used a code to create a model of how the universe as we know it today might have evolved.  This new study describes a simulation of the universe that is unique because of "how realistically it recreates the galaxies and the universe that we see, which is kind of a first for a simulation like this,"  said Dylan Nelson, study co-author at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

• CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/08/tech/innovation/universe-simulation/
• CFA Press Release: http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2014-10
• LA Times: http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-80122919/
• Illustris: http://www.illustris-project.org/