David Nathaniel Spergel is an American theoretical astrophysicist and the

Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

Charles A. Young Professor of

Astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

on the Class of 1897 Foundation at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. Since 2021, he has been the President of the

Simons Foundation The Simons Foundation is an American private foundation established in 1994 by Marilyn and James Harris Simons, Jim Simons with offices in New York City. As one of the largest charitable organizations in the United States with assets of over $5 ...

. He is known for his work on the

Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), originally known as the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP and Explorer 80), was a NASA spacecraft operating from 2001 to 2010 which measured temperature differences across the sky in the cosmic mic ...

(WMAP) project. In 2022, Spergel accepted the chair of NASA's UAP independent study team.

Early life and education

Spergel was born to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in Rochester, New York. His father, Martin Spergel, was also a

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

at York College,

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

; he died in 2021. His mother was a high school home-economics teacher. The junior Spergel attended John Glenn High School in

Huntington, New York Huntington is one of ten Administrative divisions of New York#Town, towns in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, New York (state), New York, United States. The town's population was 204,127 at the time of the 2020 census, making it the 11 ...

. He has a brother and a sister. He considered his father, who had "a really satisfying career as a college teacher" a role model, especially the aspect of his father's work in mentoring students who were "first in their family" to attend college. Spergel graduated ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(AB) from

in 1982, after completing a senior thesis on

red giant A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass (roughly 0.3–8 solar masses ()) in a late phase of stellar evolution. The stellar atmosphere, outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius large and the surface t ...

s under the supervision of Gillian R. Knapp. He then went to the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

as a visiting scholar in 1983, where he studied with

James Binney James Jeffrey Binney, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS, FInstP (born 12 April 1950) is a British astrophysics, astrophysicist. He is a professor of physics at the University of Oxford and former head of the Sub-Department of Theoretical Physi ...

. He obtained his

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

(AM) in 1984 and his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1985, both from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Career

At the invitation of John N. Bahcall, Spergel joined the Institute for Advanced Studies after his

. He left and moved to

in 1987 as an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

. He was promoted to

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

in 1992 and

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

in 1997. In 2007, he was appointed the Charles A. Young Professor of Astronomy on the Class of 1897 Foundation. Spergel joined the Flatiron Institute in 2016 as the founding director of the Center for Computational Astrophysics. Citing the hesitance to hold onto 2 positions, he retired from Princeton University in 2019 at the age of 59, and has remained as

emeritus professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

since. Spergel is a 2001 MacArthur Fellow, and was a member of the NASA Advisory Council and chair of the Space Studies Board. He was the Keck Distinguished Visiting Professor at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

from 2000 to 2001. Since 1994, Spergel is part of the

(WMAP) project consortium. Currently, he is a member of the Simons Observatory, chairs the Science Definition Team of the

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (shortened as the Roman Space Telescope, Roman, or RST) is a NASA infrared space telescope in development and scheduled to launch to a Sun–Earth L2 orbit by May 2027. It is named after former NASA Chie ...

(formerly known as the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope), and sits on the Board of Trustees of the

Carnegie Institution for Science The Carnegie Institution for Science, also known as Carnegie Science and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is an organization established to fund and perform scientific research in the United States. This institution is headquartered in W ...

(since 2022). In 2022, Spergel was invited to lead NASA's UAP independent study team of sixteen members to provide guidance in better understanding "unidentified anomalous phenomena".

Honors and awards

* Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy (1994) * Member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

(2007) * Shaw Prize in Astronomy (2010) * Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

(2012) * 25 Most Influential Space Scientists,

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

(2012) *

Nature's 10 ''Nature'' 10 is an annual listicle of ten "people who mattered" in science, produced by the scientific journal ''Nature (journal), Nature''. Nominees have made a significant impact in science either for good or for bad. Reporters and editorial s ...

(2014) *

Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics The Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics is jointly awarded each year by the American Astronomical Society and American Institute of Physics for outstanding work in astrophysics. It is funded by the Heineman Foundation in honour of Dannie Hein ...

(2015) *

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Exceptional Public Service Medal (2017) * Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2018) * Legacy Fellow of the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

(2020) *

Exceptional Public Service Medal (2022) (received the second time) * American Philosophical Society (2022) * Nikolaos Kylafis Lecturer (202

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spergel, David 1961 births Living people MacArthur Fellows Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 21st-century American astronomers 20th-century American astronomers Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Harvard University alumni American Jews Princeton University alumni Winners of the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics Fellows of the American Astronomical Society

Early life and education

Career

Honors and awards

References

Further reading

External links