Joel R. Primack (born July 14, 1945) is a professor of

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

and astrophysics at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge of ...

and is a member of the

Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics The Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics (SCIPP) is an organized research unit within the University of California system focused on theoretical and experimental high-energy physics and astrophysics. Research SCIPP's scientific and technic ...

. Primack received his A.B. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1966 and his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from Stanford University in 1970. His fields of study are

relativistic quantum field theory In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles ...

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

, and particle astrophysics. He is also involved in supercomputer simulations of dark matter models. He directs the

University of California High-Performance AstroComputing Center The University of California High-Performance AstroComputing Center (UC-HiPACC), based at the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC), is a consortium of nine University of California campuses and three Department of Energy laboratories (Law ...

(UC-HiPACC). Primack is best known for his co-authorship with George Blumenthal,

Sandra Moore Faber Sandra Moore Faber (born December 28, 1944) is an American astrophysicist known for her research on the evolution of galaxies. She is the University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and works a ...

, and

Martin Rees Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 23 June 1942) is a British cosmologist and astrophysicist. He is the fifteenth Astronomer Royal, ...

of the theory of cold dark matter (CDM) in 1984. He co-authored two books with Nancy Abrams, ''The View from the Center of the Universe'' (2006) and ''The New Universe and the Human Future'' (2011). He played main roles in starting the Congressional Science and Technology Fellowship program, the Forum on Physics and Society of the American Physical Society, and the Science and Human Rights program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1970-1973.
Link in APS website
/ref> He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

References

External links

The Terry Lectures 2009 - Yale University
- first of four lectures on cosmology by Joel Primack and Nancy Abrams. {{DEFAULTSORT:Primack, Joel American astronomers Lick Observatory University of California, Santa Cruz faculty Stanford University alumni Living people 1945 births