Prize Recipient

Nicholas L. Rodd
University of California, Berkeley

"For developing powerful new techniques to search for dark matter signals in astrophysical datasets, for characterizing the excess of GeV gamma-rays from the inner Milky Way, and for cutting-edge predictions of annihilation signals from complex dark sectors and heavy weakly- interacting dark matter."

Nicholas Rodd is a particle phenomenologist working to uncover the nature of dark matter. During his PhD, completed in 2018 under the supervision of Professor Tracy Slatyer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Rodd attacked this problem by searching for the signals particle dark matter could imprint in astrophysical datasets. Dr Rodd's thesis work refined both the predictions for how certain dark matter models might appear in telescopes and further the analysis strategies used by experiments searching for dark matter. This research was recognized with the Andrew M. Lockett Memorial Fund Award for Graduate Research at MIT in 2016 and the Price Prize in Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics in 2017.

Prior to MIT, Dr. Rodd completed his B.Sc. and LL.B. (Hons) in 2010 at Melbourne University in Australia, and then in 2012 completed an M.Sc. (Distinction) Physics at the same institution. Dr. Rodd is currently a Miller Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, where he continues to explore new ways to uncover the mystery of dark matter.

2019 Selection Committee Members: Shufang Su (Chair), Andre Luiz De Govea (Vice-Chair), Graciela Gelmini, Leonardo Rastelli, Grant N. Remmen ('18 Recipient)