Kamionkowski, Marc, 1965-
Oral history interview with Marc Kamionkowski, 2020 August 26.
Interview with Marc Kamionkowski, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University. He discusses his family heritage of Ashkenazi Jews who left Eastern Europe for Argentina, and his fathers medical research which took the family to Cleveland. Kamionkowski recounts his childhood in Shaker Heights, and he describes his undergraduate work at Washington University, where he switched from pre-med to physics to work with Marty Israel and Joe Klarmann. Despite his lack of preparation, Kamionkowski explains his admission to the University of Chicago, and he describes the bug that made him focus on physics and drive to succeed in quantum mechanics and understand quantum field theory. He discusses his thesis research under the direction of Michael Turner on energetic neutrinos from WIMP annihilation in the sun. Kamionkowski discusses his post-doctoral research at the Institute for Advanced Study where he was in Frank Wilczeks particle theory group. He describes his first faculty appointment at Columbia and how experimental advances had opened up opportunities in cosmology. He explains his decision to move to Caltech because of its strength in theoretical astrophysics and where he became director of the Moore Center. Kamionkowski discusses his subsequent move to Johns Hopkins, and he surveys his recent projects on the Hubble Tension and early dark energy. At the end of the interview, Kamionkowski explains why he has always valued research that bridges the divide between theory and experimentation and why he expects this will continue to inform his broad research agenda.
Marc Kamionkowski is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University. He completed his graduate studies at the University of Chicago and a postdoctoral position at the Institute for Advanced Study. Kamionkowski previously held faculty appointments at Columbia University and Caltech.
Bahcall, John N.
Kamionkowski, Marc, 1965-
Sachs, Robert Green, 1916-
Spergel, David N.
Turner, Michael Stanley
Wilczek, Frank.
Witten, E.
California Institute of Technology
Columbia University
Cosmic Background Explorer (Satellite)
Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, N.J.)
Johns Hopkins University
University of Chicago
Astrophysics
Cosmic background radiation
Cosmology
Dark matter (Astronomy)
Inflationary universe.
Neutrinos
Particle physics. gtt
Quantum field theory
Weak interactions (Nuclear physics)
Interviews. aat
Oral histories. aat
Transcripts. aat
Zierler, David, 1979- interviewer.
AIP-ICOS
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740, USA