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Committee and Staff Biographies

MARIA SPIROPULU, Co-Chair, is the Shang-Yi Ch’en Professor of Physics for the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Spiropulu was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for “leadership in experimental high-energy physics, in particular for … pioneering efforts in the experimental search for supersymmetry and extra dimensions” and was named an American Physical Society (APS) fellow for “pioneering searches for supersymmetry and extra dimensions at the Tevatron, innovative searches for new physics and the study of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and key contributions to triggering and data flow for the Collider Detector at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) and the Compact Muon Solenoid.” Spiropulu previously served as a member of the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel to the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) and as the chair of the APS Forum on International Physics. Spiropulu received a BSc in physics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and an MS and a PhD in physics from Harvard University.

MICHAEL S. TURNER, Co-Chair, is a visiting professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Bruce V. & Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor (emeritus) at the University of Chicago. Turner’s previous positions include scientist at Fermilab, chair of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago, assistant director for the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences at NSF, chief scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, president of the Aspen Center for Physics, president of APS, and senior strategic advisor at the Kavli Foundation. Turner’s scholarly contributions include predicting cosmic acceleration and coining the term “dark energy,” showing how quantum fluctuations evolved into the seed perturbations for galaxies and other cosmic structures during cosmic inflation, and several key ideas that led to the cold dark matter theory of structure formation. Turner played a major role in bringing together elementary particle physics and astrophysics/cosmology and chaired the committee that authored the influential National Research Council 2003 report Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos: Eleven Science Questions for the New Century, which laid out the strategic vision for the field. Turner has been involved, as a member, chair, or reviewer, in more than 20 National Academies’ studies as well as serving on advisory committees for NSF, DOE, NASA, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Turner is a fellow of the American Astronomical Society, APS, AAAS, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 1997 and the American Philosophical Society in 2017. Turner received a BS from Caltech and an MS and a PhD from Stanford University (all in physics).

NIMA ARKANI-HAMED is a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study. Arkani-Hamed is a theorist with wide-ranging interests, including the relation between theory and experiment, with a special focus on current and future particle accelerators as well as cosmological observations. Arkani-Hamed is a member of the NAS and has made wide-ranging contributions to theoretical physics ranging from proposals for new models of particle physics and cosmology to the discovery of new mathematical structures in quantum field theory. For this work, Arkani-Hamed received a PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley.

BARRY C. BARISH is the Linde Professor of Physics (emeritus) at Caltech. Among Barish’s noteworthy experiments were those performed at Fermilab using high-energy neutrino collisions to reveal the quark substructure of the nucleon. These experiments were among the first to observe the weak neutral current, a linchpin of the electroweak unification theories of Glashow, Salam, and Weinberg. Barish initiated an ambitious international effort to build a sophisticated underground detector to search for the magnetic monopole and make observations in the emerging area of particle astrophysics. Experiments conducted underground in the Gran Sasso Tunnel in Italy provided some of the key evidence that neutrinos have mass. Barish served as the director of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory project to build two large facilities to search for gravitational waves from astrophysical sources. Barish received the Nobel Prize for Physics and the Klopsteg Award of the American Association of Physics Teachers. Barish is a member of the NAS; an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, AAAS, and APS; a past vice president of APS; and an alumnus of the National Science Board. Barish received a PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley.

JOHN F. BEACOM is the Henry L. Cox Professor of Physics and Astronomy as well as an Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor at The Ohio State University (OSU). Beacom is also the director of the Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics. Beacom’s research interests focus on the intersections of the fields of astrophysics, particle physics, and nuclear physics, especially neutrinos. Prior to joining OSU, Beacom was a David N. Schramm Fellow of the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at Fermilab and a Sherman Fairchild Postdoctoral Scholar at Caltech. Beacom is the recipient of numerous recognitions, including being a Fermilab Distinguished Scholar, a divisional associate editor of Physical Review Letters, a fellow of APS, and the winner of two major teaching awards at OSU. Beacom received a PhD in physics from the University of Wisconsin. Past National Academies’ service includes co-chairing the Panel on Particle Astrophysics and Gravitation for Astro2020.

PHILIP H. BUCKSBAUM is the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science appointed to the Departments of Physics, Applied Physics, and Photon Science at Stanford University. Bucksbaum formerly directed the Photon Ultrafast Laser Science and Engineering Institute at Stanford University. Previously, Bucksbaum was a professor of physics at the University of Michigan while also serving as the associate director for science at the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science and the director of the FOCUS Center, an NSF Physics Frontier Center. Bucksbaum has contributed to several areas of atomic physics and ultrafast science, including strong-field laser-atom interactions, Rydberg wave packets, ultrafast quantum control, and ultrafast X-ray physics. Bucksbaum has served on numerous advisory committees, including for the DOE Division on Basic Energy Sciences and the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Committee for Physics, and is a past president of Optica and APS. Bucksbaum is a member of the NAS and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Prior National Academies’ service includes the Board on Physics and Astronomy, the Committee on AMO2010—An Assessment of and Outlook for Atomic Molecular and Optical Science, and the Committee on Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Sciences. Bucksbaum received a PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley.

MARCELA CARENA is the executive director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada. Carena is also jointly appointed as a particle physicist at Fermilab and a physics professor at the University of Chicago, as a member of both the Enrico Fermi Institute and the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the latter. Carena’s previous positions include chair of the Theoretical Physics Department and director of the Theory Division at Fermilab. Carena has been a leader in exploring radical concepts such as electroweak baryogenesis, supersymmetry, and warped extra dimensions, particularly in showing how these ideas can be tested in terrestrial

experiments or cosmic observatories. Recent research explores particle physics and quantum information to tackle problems of quantum theory in the early universe. Carena is an original co-author of the “Status of the Higgs Boson” review of the Particle Data Book. Carena is a fellow of AAAS and APS and was appointed to the National Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences of Argentina. Carena has been honored as a DOE Office of Science Distinguished Scientist Fellow and as a Simons Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Kavli Institute in the University of California, Santa Barbara. Carena has also served as a staff member and a John Stuart Bell Fellow at CERN and was awarded a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship of the European Commission to conduct research at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY. Carena received a diplome in physics from the Balseiro Institute, University of Cuyo, in Argentina and a PhD in physics from the University of Hamburg, Germany.

BONNIE T. FLEMING is the deputy director for science and technology and the chief research officer at Fermilab. Fleming’s research interests include neutrino physics both to understand their nature and to learn what they can tell us about the universe. Specifically, Fleming participates in primarily accelerator based long and short baseline neutrino experiments studying neutrino oscillations, neutrino cross sections, and searches for beyond the Standard Model physics using neutrinos. Fleming also researches new detector technologies relevant primarily for neutrino physics and dark matter experiments. Fleming is a member of the NAS, a fellow of APS, and a recent recipient of the APS Division of Particles and Fields’s mentoring award. Fleming served most recently as a co-chair of DOE’s Basic Research Needs Study on Instrumentation in Particle physics. Fleming is currently co-chairing a High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP) subpanel on International Benchmarking in High Energy Physics. Fleming co-chaired the DOE/NSF HEPAP International Benchmarking Subpanel from February 2022 to December 2023. Fleming received a PhD in physics from Columbia University.

FABIOLA GIANOTTI is a particle physicist and the director-general of CERN. Gianotti played a major role in the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, in particular working on the research and development, design, and construction of the liquid-argon electromagnetic calorimeter and serving as the head of the experiment. During this period, the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the LHC announced the discovery of the Higgs boson. Gianotti has served on several international committees. Gianotti has received 15 honorary doctoral degrees from universities across the world and is a foreign member of 8 academies of science, including the NAS. Gianotti’s honors include the “Cavaliere di Gran Croce dell’ordine al merito della Repubblica,” the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics Prize, the Enrico Fermi Prize of the Italian Physical Society, the Medal of Honour of the Niels Bohr Institute of Copenhagen, and the Tate Medal of the American Institute of Physics for International Leadership. Gianotti received a PhD in particle physics from the University of Milan.

DAVID J. GROSS is the Chancellor’s Chair Professor of Theoretical Physics and the former director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Previously, Gross was the Thomas Jones Professor of Mathematical Physics at Princeton University. Gross has been a central figure in particle physics and string theory, working with Frank Wilczek to develop quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong nuclear force. For this discovery, Gross was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics with Wilczek and H. David Politzer. Gross’s awards include the Sakurai Prize, the MacArthur Prize, the Dirac Medal, the Oscar Klein Medal, the Harvey Prize, the European Physical Society High Energy and Particle Physics Prize, the Grande Médaille d’Or, the Medal of Honor of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, and multiple honorary degrees from across world. Gross is a member of the NAS, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and The World Academy of Sciences and has served in the presidential line of APS. Gross received a PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley.

SALMAN HABIB is a distinguished fellow and the division director at Argonne National Laboratory and holds joint appointments at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. Habib’s interests and contributions cover a broad span of research in elementary particle physics, ranging across nonequilibrium field theory, quantum information, physics of the early universe, beam dynamics, nonlinear dynamical systems, and the formation and

evolution of cosmological structures with a focus on precision prediction for multi-wavelength sky surveys. Habib also leads efforts in the areas of algorithms and computational methods, high-performance computing, and advanced statistical methods and machine learning. Prior to joining Argonne, Habib was a staff member in Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Theoretical Division. Habib has been a member of the HEPAP, the Fermilab Physics Advisory Committee, and the National Academies’ Board on Research Data and Information. Habib is a fellow of APS and recipient of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society’s Sidney Fernbach Award. Habib received a PhD in physics from the University of Maryland.

YOUNG-KEE KIM is the Albert A. Michelson Distinguished Service Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago and the president of APS. Before joining the University of Chicago, Kim was a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Kim’s research interests lie in experimental particle physics at the ATLAS experiment with the LHC at CERN to understand the origin of mass for fundamental particles, and accelerator physics at NSF’s Center for Bright Beams (CBB) and at Fermilab’s IOTA Facility. Kim previously served as the deputy director of Fermilab. Kim is a member of the NAS, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Korean Academy of Science and Technology; a fellow of APS, AAAS, and the Sloan Foundation; and a recipient of the Ho-Am Prize. Kim has served on numerous advisory boards and committees for national and international institutions. Kim received a PhD in physics from the University of Rochester.

PIERMARIA J. ODDONE is the director emeritus of Fermilab and deputy director emeritus of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Oddone received the Panofsky Award from APS for his invention of a new collider, the Asymmetric B Factory. Oddone is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Academia Nacional de Ciencias del Perú. Oddone received a PhD in physics from Princeton University.

J. RITCHIE PATTERSON is the Helen T. Edwards Professor of Physics at Cornell University. Patterson’s research uses data from the LHC to seek the new phenomena and particles, specifically, particles with distinctly long lifetimes, because these would be unequivocal evidence for new phenomena and are predicted in numerous models. Patterson also directs CBB, which is an NSF Science and Technology Center that works to increase the brightness of electron beams in order to provide new capabilities for scientific research, industry, and medicine. Patterson served on the National Academies’ Decadal Review of Elementary Particle Physics and co-chairs the Americas Linear Collider Committee. Patterson is a fellow of APS and AAAS. Patterson received a PhD in particle physics from the University of Chicago.

FULVIA PILAT is the director of the Research Accelerator Division (RAD), which operates the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Pilat is responsible for leadership and management of RAD and overall SNS facility operations management. RAD is responsible for safe, effective, and reliable operation, maintenance, and improvement of all aspects of the SNS accelerator, target, programmatic facility infrastructure, and environment, safety, health, and quality. Pilat previously worked at Jefferson Laboratory in Virginia as the deputy associate director for accelerators and also led the accelerator program for Jefferson Lab’s Electron-Ion Collider. Pilat has served as a member of the HEPAP, elected chair of the APS Division of Physics of Beams, and elected chair of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society Particle Accelerator Science and Technology Executive Committee. Pilat received a PhD in physics from the University of Trieste in Italy.

CHANDA PRESCOD-WEINSTEIN is an assistant professor of physics and astronomy and core faculty in women’s and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire. Prescod-Weinstein has previously been a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow in cosmology and a Martin Luther King Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Theoretical Physics. Prescod-Weinstein holds expertise on dark matter, neutron stars, and early universe cosmology, with an emphasis on physics beyond the Standard Model. Prescod-Weinstein received the 2021 APS Edward A. Bouchet Award for contributions to particle cosmology. Prescod-Weinstein received a PhD in physics from the University of Waterloo for work conducted at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.

NATALIE ROE is the associate laboratory director for the Physical Sciences at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and is responsible for research programs in particle physics, nuclear physics, cosmology, and accelerator science and engineering. Roe’s research has ranged from studies of the W boson at the Fermilab Tevatron, to charge parity violation in B mesons with the BaBar experiment at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, to dark energy and astrophysics with the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument experiments. The development of instrumentation involving solid-state detectors and readout has been a primary focus. Roe is a fellow of APS, AAAS, and the past chair of the APS Division of Particles and Fields. As of January 2024, Roe is the chair of the HEPAP Facilities Subpanel. Roe received a PhD in physics from Stanford University.

TIM M.P. TAIT is a Chancellor’s Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine, serving as the department chair from 2019 to 2023. Tait’s research interests include theoretical investigations of physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, particle physics phenomenology, high-energy collider physics, and cosmology. Tait’s work involves both exploring new models and new phenomena, as well as theoretical interpretation of experiments. Tait is a fellow of APS and AAAS and the recipient of the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel-Forschungspreis from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Meenakshi Narain Mentoring Award by the APS Division of Particles and Fields. Tait received a PhD in physics from Michigan State University.

STAFF

TARINI KONCHADY, Co-Study Director, joined the Space Studies Board (SSB) in June 2022 and is an associate program officer. Before joining the SSB, she was a graduate teaching and research assistant at Texas A&M University. Her research focused on expanding the utility of variable stars in the extragalactic distance scale to enable more precise measurements of the Hubble constant. Konchady also has extensive experience in science communication and outreach, notably as a Media Fellow for the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and as a member of the Astrobites collaboration. Her policy experience began with a AAS Congressional Visits Day and continued through the Lloyd V. Berkner Space Policy Internship at the SSB and a graduate certificate in public management from the Bush School of Government and Public Service. Konchady earned a PhD and an MS in astronomy from Texas A&M University and a BS in physics from Johns Hopkins University.

DANIEL NAGASAWA, Co-Study Director, joined the SSB in July 2019 and is a program officer. Before joining the SSB, he was a graduate research assistant specializing in stellar astrophysics, measuring the abundance of elements in the atmospheres of very old, metal-poor stars. Nagasawa began his research career as an undergraduate research assistant for the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search. When he began graduate school, he transitioned to designing and evaluating astronomical instrumentation, specifically ground-based spectrographs. He went on to specialize in high-resolution stellar spectroscopy and applied these techniques on stars in ultra-faint dwarf satellite galaxies of the Milky Way to study the chemical history of the galaxy as part of the Dark Energy Survey (DES). He also developed skills in education and public outreach by teaching an observational astronomy course and writing for an outreach initiative for DES. Nagasawa earned his PhD in astronomy and his MS in physics at Texas A&M University. He earned his BS in physics with a concentration in astrophysics from Stanford University.

LINDA M. WALKER, a senior project assistant, has been with the National Academies since 2007. Before her assignment with the SSB, she was on assignment with the National Academies Press. Prior to working at the National Academies, she was with the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy in Falls Church, Virginia. Walker has 28 years of administrative experience.

COLLEEN N. HARTMAN joined the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in 2018 as the director for both the SSB and the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) and began serving as the director of the Board on Physics and Astronomy (BPA) in April 2021. After beginning her government career as a presidential management intern under Ronald Reagan, Hartman worked on Capitol Hill for House Science and Technology Committee Chair Don Fuqua as a senior engineer building spacecraft at NASA Goddard and as a senior

policy analyst at the White House. She has served as the planetary division director, deputy associate administrator, and acting associate administrator at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate; as the deputy assistant administrator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and as the deputy center director and director of Science and Exploration at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Hartman has built and launched scientific balloon payloads, overseen the development of hardware for a variety of Earth-observing spacecraft, and served as NASA program manager for dozens of missions, the most successful of which was the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE). Data from the COBE spacecraft gained two NASA-sponsored scientists the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006. She also played a pivotal role in developing innovative approaches to powering space probes destined for the solar system’s farthest reaches. While at NASA Headquarters, she spearheaded the selection process for the New Horizons probe to Pluto. She helped gain administration and congressional approval for an entirely new class of funded missions that are competitively selected, called “New Frontiers,” to explore the planets, asteroids, and comets in the solar system. She has several master’s degrees and a PhD in physics. Hartman has received numerous awards, including two prestigious Presidential Rank Awards.

ARUL MOZHI is acting board director (as of May 16, 2025) of the ASEB, SSB, and BPA at the National Academies. Since 1999, Mozhi has been directing projects in the areas of defense and broader science and technology carried out by numerous committees of ASEB, SSB, the Laboratory Assessments Board, the Army Research Laboratory Technical Assessment Board, the Naval Studies Board, and the National Materials and Manufacturing Board. Prior to joining the National Academies, Mozhi held technical and management positions in systems engineering and applied materials research and development (R&D) at several small- and mid-size high-tech R&D and consulting companies in the Washington, DC, and Boston areas—UTRON, Roy F. Weston, and Marko Materials. He received his MS and PhD (the latter in 1986) in materials engineering from The Ohio State University and then served as a postdoctoral research associate there for 2 years. He received his BTech in metallurgical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 1982.