Katie Mack (astrophysicist) explained

Katie Mack
Birth Name:Katherine J. Mack
Birth Date:1 May 1981
Thesis Title:Tests of Early Universe Physics from Observational Astronomy
Thesis Url:https://www.proquest.com/docview/304982499
Thesis Year:2009
Alma Mater:Princeton University (PhD)
California Institute of Technology (BS)
Doctoral Advisor:Paul Steinhardt
Field:Cosmology
Theoretical astrophysics
Work Institutions:Perimeter Institute
North Carolina State University
University of Melbourne
University of Cambridge

Katherine J. Mack (born 1 May 1981)[1] 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.[2] [3] Mack is also a popular science communicator who participates in social media and regularly writes for Scientific American, Slate, Sky & Telescope, Time, and Cosmos.

Early life and education

Mack became interested in science as a child and built solar-powered cars out of Lego blocks.[4] Her mother is a fan of science fiction, and encouraged Mack to watch Star Trek and Star Wars.[5] Her grandfather was a student at Caltech and worked on the Apollo 11 mission.[6] She became more interested in spacetime and the Big Bang after attending talks by scientists such as Stephen Hawking.

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.[7] She received her undergraduate degree in physics in 2003.[8] Mack obtained her PhD in astrophysics from Princeton University in 2009.[9] Her thesis on the early universe was supervised by Paul Steinhardt.[10] [11]

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.[12] Later in 2012, Mack was a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow at the University of Melbourne.[13] Mack was involved with the construction of the dark matter detector SABRE.[14]

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.[15] [16] She joined the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in June 2022 as the inaugural Hawking Chair in Cosmology and Science Communication.[17] [18] The Canadian multidisciplinary research organization CIFAR named her one of the CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars in 2022.[19]

Mack works at the intersection between fundamental physics and astrophysics. Her research considers dark matter,[20] vacuum decay,[21] the formation of galaxies, observable tracers of cosmic evolution, and the Epoch of Reionization.[22] Mack has described dark matter as "one of science's most pressing enigmas".[23] [24] She has worked on dark matter self-annihilation[25] and has investigated whether the accretion of dark matter could result in the growth of primordial black holes (PBHs).[26] She has worked on the impact of PBHs on the cosmic microwave background.[27] She has become increasingly interested, too, in the end of the universe.[28]

Public engagement and advocacy

Mack maintains a strong science outreach presence on both social and traditional media.[29] [30] She has been described by Motherboard and Creative Cultivate as a "social media celebrity". 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.[31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] Mack's Twitter account has over 300,000 followers; her response to a climate change denier on that platform gained mainstream coverage,[37] [38] as did her "Chirp for LIGO" upon the first detection of gravitational waves.[39] [40] 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.[41]

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.[42] In February 2019, she appeared in an episode of The Jodcast, talking about her work and science communication.[43] Mack was a member of the jury for the Alfred P. Sloan Prize in the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.[44] In 2019, she was referenced on the Hozier track "No Plan" from his album Wasteland, Baby!: "As Mack explained, there will be darkness again".[45]

She is a member of the Sloan Science & Film community, where she works on science fiction.[46] [47]

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.[48] [49] It considers the five scenarios for the end of the universe (both theoretically and practically), and has received positive reviews both for its science outreach accuracy and its wit.[50] [51] [52] The book[53] 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.[54]

Mack hosted a podcast with author John Green called Crash Course Pods: The Universe[55] in 2024.

Personal life

Mack is interested in the intersection of art, poetry and science.[56] She and the musician Hozier became friends after getting to know one another on Twitter.[57] She is bisexual.[58] [59] Mack is also a pilot, having earned her private pilot license during the COVID-19 pandemic.[60]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Mack, Katie, 1981- . id.loc.gov . July 7, 2021.
  2. Katie Mack's
  3. Web site: A Tour of the Universe (and selected cosmic mysteries). . Mack . Katie . slideshare.net . 2017-07-01.
  4. Web site: Create & Cultivate 100: STEM & Finance: Katie Mack. Create + Cultivate. 21 January 2019 . en-US. 2019-03-26.
  5. Web site: Space the Nation: Katie Mack, the mansplainer slayer, on getting science right. Cox. Ana Marie. 2018-10-23. SYFY WIRE. en. 2019-03-26.
  6. Web site: A Scientist Who Found Her Faith In Physics: Meet Katie Mack, AKA AstroKatie. Stasio. Dana Terry, Frank. North Carolina Public Radio. https://web.archive.org/web/20221128050414/https://www.wunc.org/show/the-state-of-things/2019-07-08/a-scientist-who-found-her-faith-in-physics-meet-katie-mack-aka-astrokatie. 28 November 2022. live. en. 2019-03-26. He actually, in some sense, saved the lives of the Apollo 11 astronauts [...] Turned out there was a huge storm right where the landing site was supposed to be [...] And so my grandfather had to go back to NASA and say, “You have to move the landing site. I can not tell you why.”.
  7. Web site: Twitter . Katie Mack. 2020-08-04.
  8. Web site: On Astrophysics, Stardust, and Our (Teeny Tiny) Place in the Universe. Techer. en-US. 2019-03-26. 2019-03-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20190327090015/https://www.techer.caltech.edu/on-astrophysics-and-stardust. dead.
  9. Web site: Katie Mack *09: Taming of the Troll. 2016-09-26. Princeton Alumni Weekly. en. 2019-03-26.
  10. Katherine J.. Mack. 2009. Tests of Early Universe Physics from Observational Astronomy. . 437814758. PhD. Princeton University .
  11. Web site: Katherine Mack. www.planetary.org. en. 2019-03-26.
  12. News: Katherine (Katie) Mack Department of Physics NC State University. 2018-05-24. 2018-11-19. en.
  13. Web site: Katie Mack's Webpage. www.ph.unimelb.edu.au. 2018-11-19.
  14. Web site: I Went to the 'Contact' Radio Telescope with the Astrophysicist Behind Twitter's All-Time Sickest Burn. Scoles. Sarah. 2017-04-10. Motherboard. en-US. 2019-03-26.
  15. News: Katie Mack Chancellor's Faculty Excellence Program NC State University. 2018-01-08. 2018-11-19. en.
  16. Web site: Katherine Mack: Assistant Professor. NCSU Physics. 2018-01-01.
  17. Web site: Brown. Mike. 2021-12-07. Katie Mack to join Perimeter as Hawking Chair in Cosmology and Science Communication PI News. 2021-12-07. perimeterinstitute.ca.
  18. 1532815119348027392. Perimeter. We're so thrilled to welcome you to Waterloo, Katie! Katie is the Hawking Chair in Cosmology and Science Communication, the perfect choice for a position with a dual focus on research and sharing science with the broader public.. 2022-06-03. 2022-06-07.
  19. Web site: 2022-06-07 . Meet the 2022-2024 cohort of CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars . 2022-06-07 . CIFAR . en-US.
  20. Web site: I'm Looking for Evidence That Dark Matter Messed With Stars and Galaxies. Mack. Katie. 2014-02-25. Slate Magazine. en. 2019-03-26.
  21. Web site: Vacuum decay: the ultimate catastrophe. Cosmos Magazine. 14 September 2015 . en. 2019-03-26.
  22. Web site: The Universe, in Theory: The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Cosmos. Astrokatie. 2012-08-31. The Universe, in Theory. 2019-03-26.
  23. Web site: U of T Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics Dark Matter, First Light. en-US. 2019-03-26.
  24. Web site: Bright light may not be dark matter's smoking gun after all. Slezak. Michael. New Scientist. en-US. 2019-03-26.
  25. Mack . Katherine J. . Known unknowns of dark matter annihilation over cosmic time . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . 11 April 2014 . 439 . 3 . 2728–2735 . 10.1093/mnras/stu129 . 1309.7783 . 2014MNRAS.439.2728M . 118667373 .
  26. Mack . Katherine J. . Ostriker . Jeremiah P. . Ricotti . Massimo . Growth of Structure Seeded by Primordial Black Holes . The Astrophysical Journal . 20 August 2007 . 665 . 2 . 1277–1287 . 10.1086/518998 . astro-ph/0608642 . 2007ApJ...665.1277M . 15798444 .
  27. Ricotti . Massimo . Ostriker . Jeremiah P. . Mack . Katherine J. . Effect of Primordial Black Holes on the Cosmic Microwave Background and Cosmological Parameter Estimates . The Astrophysical Journal . 20 June 2008 . 680 . 2 . 829–845 . 10.1086/587831 . 0709.0524 . 2008ApJ...680..829R . 11814173 .
  28. Web site: Death of a Universe College of Sciences Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA. cos.gatech.edu. 2019-03-26. 2019-03-26. https://web.archive.org/web/20190326231506/https://cos.gatech.edu/events/death-universe-0. dead.
  29. Web site: Electric Lady Influencer of the Week: Katie Mack. 2017-04-28. Electric Lady. 2017-07-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20170801034240/https://www.electriclady.world/world/2017/5/28/electric-lady-influencer-of-the-week-katie-mack. 2017-08-01. dead.
  30. Web site: Black Holes, Cosmic Collisions and the Rippling of Spacetime. Mack. Katie. 2017-06-12. The Atlantic.
  31. Web site: Death of a Universe La mort d'un Univers (25 February 2019) · Indico. Indico. 2019-03-26.
  32. Web site: Stories by Katie Mack. Scientific American. en. 2019-03-26.
  33. Web site: Katie Mack . The Guardian. en. 2019-03-26.
  34. Web site: Katie Mack. Cosmos Magazine. en. 2019-03-26.
  35. Web site: From black holes to dark matter, an astrophysicist explains. Mack. Katherine J.. The Conversation. 28 April 2014 . en. 2019-03-26.
  36. News: Ghost galaxy prompts cosmic mystery. Halton. Mary. 2018-03-28. 2019-03-26. en-GB.
  37. Web site: Astrophysicist Katie Mack lays the smackdown on mansplainer with droll Twitter burn. 2016-08-16. NYT. 2017-07-01. 2017-12-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20171218230747/http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2016/08/16/astrophysicist-katie-mack-lays-the-smackdown-on-mansplainer-with-droll-twitter-burn/. dead.
  38. Web site: Astrophysicist had the perfect response to climate change denier. Mezzofiore. Gianluca. Mashable. 16 August 2016 . en. 2019-03-26.
  39. Castelvecchi . Davide . Witze . Alexandra . Einstein's gravitational waves found at last . Nature . 11 February 2016 . nature.2016.19361 . 10.1038/nature.2016.19361 . 182916902 .
  40. News: Roston . Michael . Scientists Chirp Excitedly for LIGO, Gravitational Waves and Einstein . The New York Times . 11 February 2016 .
  41. Web site: Katie Mack is the 2017 Women in Physics Lecturer. 2017-04-04. 2017-07-24. 2020-03-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20200316111749/https://aip.org.au/physicsapril2017/. dead.
  42. Web site: Judges and Ambassadors. Nature.com.
  43. Web site: February 2019: Try turning it off and on again!. 11 February 2019. The Jodcast.
  44. Web site: Sundance Film Festival: Juries, Awards Night Host Announced - Thursday, January 17th, 2019. 2019-01-17. Sundance Film Festival. 2019-03-25.
  45. News: Hozier: 'If I wanted to make a f**king pop song, I would'. Bruton. Louise. The Irish Times. en. 2019-03-26.
  46. Web site: People - Sloan Science & Film. scienceandfilm.org. 2019-03-26.
  47. Web site: Sloan Science & Film. scienceandfilm.org. 2019-03-26.
  48. Web site: Book Deals: Week of January 29, 2018. www.publishersweekly.com. 2019-03-26.
  49. Web site: Book. Katie Mack, Astrophysicist. en-US. 2019-03-26.
  50. News: This Is How It All Ends. James. Gleick. The New York Times . August 4, 2020.
  51. News: Katie Mack: 'Knowing how the universe will end is freeing'. BBC News . August 3, 2020.
  52. Web site: THE END OF EVERYTHING | Kirkus Reviews. www.kirkusreviews.com.
  53. Web site: 15 translations Tweet . 2020-12-28.
  54. Book: The End of Everything. 2020-08-04. 978-1-9821-0354-5. en. Mack. Katie.
  55. A Podcast About The Entire History Of The Universe . 2024-04-17 . CrashCourse . 2024-06-06 . YouTube.
  56. Web site: 'I want you to live forward, but see backward': a theoretical astrophysicist's manifesto Aeon Videos. Aeon. en. 2019-03-26.
  57. Web site: Philip . Tom . Astrophysicist Katie Mack Is Cool With the End of the Universe . inverse.com . 25 April 2019 . December 16, 2023.
  58. Web site: Mack . Katie . December 15, 2023 . Katie Mack (@astrokatie.com): '️‍' — Bluesky . .
  59. Web site: Mack | 500 Queer Scientists|website=500 Queer Scientists|access-date=2020-12-19.
  60. News: Eanes . Zachery . 2022-11-22 . As NC State astrophysicist Katie Mack's star rises, she ponders how the universe will end . . 2023-12-15.

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