Daniel Wayne Hooper | |
---|---|
Born | Minnesota, United States | 16 December 1976
Alma mater | University of Wisconsin–Madison (PhD) |
Known for | Research in dark matter, particle physics, and cosmology |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physics, Cosmology, Astrophysics |
Institutions | Fermilab, University of Chicago, University of Oxford |
Doctoral advisor | Francis Halzen |
Daniel Wayne Hooper (born December 16, 1976) is an American cosmologist and particle physicist specializing in the areas of dark matter, cosmic rays, and neutrino astrophysics. He is a senior scientist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory[1] and a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago.[2]
Hooper is the author of several books, including Dark Cosmos: In Search of our Universe’s Missing Mass and Energy (2006),[3] Nature’s Blueprint: Supersymmetry and the Search for a Unified Theory of Matter and Force (2008),[4] and At the Edge of Time: Exploring the Mysteries of Our Universe's First Seconds (2019).[5]
Hooper received his PhD in physics in 2003 from the University of Wisconsin,[2] under the supervision of Francis Halzen. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford between 2003 and 2005, and the David Schramm Fellow at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) from 2005 until 2007.[6] He is currently a senior scientist at Fermilab[1] and a professor in the astronomy and astrophysics department at the University of Chicago.[2] He is also a member of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics (KICP) at the University of Chicago.[7] Since 2017, he has been the head of Fermilab's Theoretical Astrophysics Group.[1]
Hooper has authored or co-authored over 200 articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.[8] The most highly cited of these papers includes a 2005 review of dark matter (co-authored by Gianfranco Bertone and Joseph Silk),[9] as well as a series of papers written between 2009 and 2014 on the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope's Galactic Center excess and its possible connection to annihilating dark matter.[10][11][12][13] In 2017 he was elected to become a fellow of the American Physical Society, "For pursuing the identity of dark matter by combining careful analysis of observational data with theoretical ideas from both particle physics and astrophysics."[14]
Hooper is the author of two books published by Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins. The first, Dark Cosmos: In Search of our Universe’s Missing Mass and Energy (2006) was named a notable book by Seed Magazine.[15] His second book, Nature’s Blueprint: Supersymmetry and the Search for a Unified Theory of Matter and Force (2008), was called "essential reading" by New Scientist.[4]
Hooper's third book is At the Edge of Time: Exploring the Mysteries of Our Universe's First Seconds (2019), published by Princeton University Press.[5]
Since 2020, Dan Hooper and Shalma Wegsman have run the physics podcast Why This Universe? which appears every other week.[16]
Hooper has also written for popular magazines including Astronomy,[17] Sky and Telescope,[18] and New Scientist,[19] and appeared on television and radio programs including Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman (season 4), BBC's Horizon,[20] BBC World News, Space's Deepest Secrets,[20] and NPR's Science Friday.[21][22][23]