Professor Dan Hooper

Dan Hooper, Ph.D. is Associate Scientist in the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago.
 
Dan’s research focuses on the interface between particle physics and cosmology. Particle physics explores the fundamental nature of energy and matter, while cosmology is the science of the universe itself, including its composition, history and evolution. Some of the areas of this field that he has worked on include dark matter, supersymmetry, high-energy neutrinos, extra dimensions, and ultra-high energy cosmic rays.
 
As the new field of astro-particle physics rapidly develops, we are witnessing an exciting time in the history of science. In addition to the progress being made in the traditional areas of experimental particle physics (accelerator experiments), exciting developments are also taking place in the use of astrophysical experiments to study elementary particles. The most striking example of this success is the measurement of the neutrino masses and mixing angles that have been made over the last decade.
 
Many of the questions asked by particle physicists are difficult to address with collider experiments and are being explored ever increasingly by astrophysicists. These efforts include the development of particle dark matter searches, ultra-high energy cosmic rays detectors, gamma-ray telescopes, and high-energy neutrino telescopes. His research is focused primarily, although not entirely, on studying and exploring particle physics beyond the Standard Model using astrophysics.
 
Dan authored Nature’s Blueprint: Supersymmetry and the Search for a Unified Theory of Matter and Force, Dark Cosmos: In Search of Our Universe’s Missing Mass and Energy, and coauthored Distinguishing Between Dark Matter and Pulsar Origins of the ATIC Electron Spectrum With Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes, Pulsars as the Sources of High Energy Cosmic Ray Positrons, High Energy Positrons From Annihilating Dark Matter, Deducing the nature of dark matter from direct and indirect detection experiments in the absence of collider signatures of new physics, and The New DAMA Dark-Matter Window and Energetic-Neutrino Searches.
 
Dan was the David Schramm Fellow at Fermilab and Postdoc at the University of Oxford. He completed his Ph.D in physics at the University of Wisconsin in 2003.
 
Watch In Search of our Universe’s Missing Mass and Energy, The Big Bang Theory, Supersymmetry and the Search for Dark Matter, The Expanding Universe, and Black Holes. Listen to Large Hadron Collider Set to Start Up. Read Has dark matter’s telltale signature been spotted?, Pulsars put new spin on evidence for dark matter, and Has new physics been found at the ageing Tevatron?