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
Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...
. He is a senior scientist at
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the
University of Chicago.
Hooper is the author of several books, including ''Dark Cosmos: In Search of our Universe’s Missing Mass and Energy'' (2006),
''Nature’s Blueprint: Supersymmetry and the Search for a Unified Theory of Matter and Force'' (2008),
and ''At the Edge of Time: Exploring the Mysteries of Our Universe's First Seconds'' (2019).
Career
Hooper received his PhD in physics in 2003 from the
University of Wisconsin,
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.
He is currently a senior scientist at Fermilab
and a professor in the astronomy and astrophysics department at the University of Chicago.
He is also a member of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics (KICP) at the University of Chicago.
Since 2017, he has been the head of Fermilab's Theoretical Astrophysics Group.
Hooper has authored or co-authored over 200 articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
The most highly cited of these papers includes a 2005 review of dark matter (co-authored by Gianfranco Bertone and
Joseph Silk
Joseph Ivor Silk FRS (born 3 December 1942) is a British-American astrophysicist. He was the Savilian Chair of Astronomy at the University of Oxford from 1999 to September 2011.
He is an Emeritus Fellow of New College, Oxford and a Fellow ...
),
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.
[
][
][
][
] In 2017 he was elected to become a fellow of the
American Physical Society
The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...
, "For pursuing the identity of dark matter by combining careful analysis of observational data with theoretical ideas from both particle physics and astrophysics."
Popular books and podcast
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.
[
] 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.
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.
Since 2020, Dan Hooper and Shalma Wegsman have run the physics podcast ''Why This Universe?'' which appears every other week.
In popular culture
Hooper has also written for popular magazines including ''Astronomy'',
''Sky and Telescope'',
[
] and ''New Scientist'',
[
] and appeared on television and radio programs including ''
Through the Wormhole
''Through the Wormhole'' is an American science documentary television series narrated and hosted by American actor Morgan Freeman. It began airing on Science Channel in the United States on June 9, 2010. The series concluded its run on May 16 ...
'' with
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman (born June 1, 1937) is an American actor, director, and narrator. He is known for his distinctive deep voice and various roles in a wide variety of film genres. Throughout his career spanning over five decades, he has received ...
(
season 4),
BBC's ''
Horizon
The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...
'',
''
BBC World News'', ''Space's Deepest Secrets'',
and
NPR's ''
Science Friday''.
References
External links
* http://home.fnal.gov/~dhooper/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hooper, Dan
People associated with Fermilab
20th-century American physicists
1976 births
Living people
American cosmologists
American astrophysicists
American particle physicists
University of Chicago faculty
University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni
Writers from Minnesota
Fellows of the American Physical Society