David Nathaniel Spergel, is an American theoretical astrophysicist and Princeton University professor known for his work on the WMAP mission.
Education
Spergel was born in Rochester, New York, and attended John Glenn High School, Huntington, New New York He obtained a Bachelor"s degree in Astronomy (summa cum laude) from Princeton University in 1982, and was a visiting scholar at Oxford University in 1983. He obtained his master"s degree (Astronomy) at, 1984, and his doctorate (Astronomy), Harvard University, 1985, with a thesis entitled Astrophysical Implications of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles.
Career
Spergel is a MacArthur Fellow. He has served as the chair of the Astrophysics Subcommittee of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Advisory Council and was once the West.M. Keck distinguished visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He was part of the team that originated the WMAP mission and designed the spacecraft, and has worked on deciphering the data that it beams back from space.
He shared the 2015 Dannie Heineman Prize with Marc Kamionkowski "for their outstanding contributions to the investigation of the fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background that have led to major breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe".
His interests range from the search for planets around nearby stars to the shape of the universe. The WMAP Satellite has been the main focus of his research.
His WMAP papers are currently the #1 and #2 most cited new papers in all of physics and space science. WMAP was successfully launched on June 30, 2001.
He is also interested in understanding how galaxies form and evolve.
Spergel"s thesis work was on dark matter and he has recently returned to this field, exploring the possibility that the dark matter might be more complex than previously imagined. Spergel is among a group of scientists and engineers at Princeton University who are developing new technologies attempting to enable the direct imaging of earth-like planets around nearby stars. Spergel is an avid bicyclist and skier.
He has taken sabbaticals in France and Chile.
Membership
National Academy of Sciences. American Academy of Arts and Sciences]
Spergel is the Charles A Young Professor of Astronomy and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.