Katherine J. Mack (born 1 May 1981)[3] is a theoretical cosmologist who holds the Hawking Chair in Cosmology and Science Communication at the Perimeter Institute. Her academic research investigates dark matter, vacuum decay, and the Epoch of Reionization.[4][1][5] Mack is also a popular science communicator who participates in social media and regularly writes for Scientific American, Slate, Sky & Telescope, Time, and Cosmos.[6][7]
Katie Mack | |
|---|---|
 Mack in 2019 | |
| Born | Katherine J. Mack 1 May 1981 |
| Alma mater | Princeton University (PhD) California Institute of Technology (BS) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Cosmology Theoretical astrophysics[1] |
| Institutions | Perimeter Institute North Carolina State University University of Melbourne University of Cambridge |
| Thesis | Tests of Early Universe Physics from Observational Astronomy (2009) |
| Doctoral advisor | Paul Steinhardt[2] |
| Website | www |
Early life and education
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 A Tour of the Universe: Women in Physics Lecture | |
| Shells of Cosmic Time |
Mack became interested in science as a child and built solar-powered cars out of Lego blocks.[8] Her mother is a fan of science fiction, and encouraged Mack to watch Star Trek and Star Wars.[9] Her grandfather was a student at Caltech and worked on the Apollo 11 mission.[10] She became more interested in spacetime and the Big Bang after attending talks by scientists such as Stephen Hawking.[8]
Mack attended California Institute of Technology, and appeared as an extra in the opening credits of the 2001 American comedy film Legally Blonde when they filmed on campus.[11] She received her undergraduate degree in physics in 2003.[12][13] Mack obtained her PhD in astrophysics from Princeton University in 2009.[14] Her thesis on the early universe was supervised by Paul Steinhardt.[2][15]
Research and career
After earning her doctorate, Mack joined the University of Cambridge as a Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) postdoctoral research fellow at the Kavli Institute for Cosmology.[13] Later in 2012, Mack was a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow at the University of Melbourne.[16] Mack was involved with the construction of the dark matter detector SABRE.[17]
In January 2018, Mack became an assistant professor in the Department of Physics at North Carolina State University and a member of the university's Leadership in Public Science Cluster.[18][19] She joined the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in June 2022 as the inaugural Hawking Chair in Cosmology and Science Communication.[20][21] The Canadian multidisciplinary research organization CIFAR named her one of the CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars in 2022.[22]
Mack works at the intersection between fundamental physics and astrophysics. Her research considers dark matter,[23] vacuum decay,[24] the formation of galaxies, observable tracers of cosmic evolution, and the Epoch of Reionization.[25] Mack has described dark matter as "one of science's most pressing enigmas".[26][27] She has worked on dark matter self-annihilation[28] and has investigated whether the accretion of dark matter could result in the growth of primordial black holes (PBHs).[29] She has worked on the impact of PBHs on the cosmic microwave background.[30] She has become increasingly interested, too, in the end of the universe.[31]
Public engagement and advocacy
Mack maintains a strong science outreach presence on both social and traditional media.[32][33] She has been described by Motherboard and Creative Cultivate as a "social media celebrity".[8][17] Mack is a popular science writer and has contributed to The Guardian, Scientific American, Slate, The Conversation, Sky & Telescope, Gizmodo, Time, and Cosmos, as well as providing expert information to the BBC.[34][35][36][37][38][39] Mack's Twitter account has over 300,000 followers; her response to a climate change denier on that platform gained mainstream coverage,[40][41] as did her "Chirp for LIGO" upon the first detection of gravitational waves.[42][43]She was the 2017 Australian Institute of Physics Women in Physics lecturer, in which capacity she spent three weeks delivering talks at schools and universities across Australia.[44][45]
In 2018, Mack was chosen to be one of the judges for Nature magazine's newly founded Nature Research Awards for Inspiring Science and Innovating Science.[46] In February 2019, she appeared in an episode of The Jodcast, talking about her work and science communication.[47] Mack was a member of the jury for the Alfred P. Sloan Prize in the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.[48] In 2019, she was referenced on the Hozier track "No Plan" from his album Wasteland, Baby!: "As Mack explained, there will be darkness again".[49]
She is a member of the Sloan Science & Film community, where she works on science fiction.[50][51]
Her first book, The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking), was published by Simon & Schuster in August 2020, the firm having won the rights in an eight-way bidding battle.[52][53] It considers the five scenarios for the end of the universe (both theoretically and practically),[52] and has received positive reviews both for its science outreach accuracy and its wit.[54][55][56] The book[57] was also a New York Times Notable Book and featured on the best books of the year lists of The Washington Post, The Economist, New Scientist, Publishers Weekly, and The Guardian.[58][59]
Mack hosted a podcast with author John Green called Crash Course Pods: The Universe[60] in 2024.
Personal life
Mack is interested in the intersection of art, poetry and science.[61] She and the musician Hozier became friends after getting to know one another on Twitter.[62] She is bisexual.[63][64] Mack is also a pilot, having earned her private pilot license during the COVID-19 pandemic.[59]
References
External links
- Official website
- Katie Mack on X
- Katie Mack at NC State University
