Prize Recipient

Nicholas Rodd works to uncover the nature of dark matter by searching for signals at the interface of astrophysics and particle physics. He obtained his B.Sc. and LL.B. (Hons) from Melbourne University in 2010 and then finished an M.Sc. (Distinction) Physics in 2012 at the same institution. Dr. Rodd completed his Ph.D. at MIT in 2018 under the supervision of Professor Tracy Slatyer. For his thesis, Dr. Rodd worked on both the details of what happens when two dark matter particles annihilate, and also improved methods for where to search for the signals of such processes in the sky with telescopes operating at different energies. This work was recognized with the Price Prize in Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics in 2017 and 2019 J.J. and Noriko Sakurai Dissertation Award in Theoretical Particle Physics. After MIT, Dr. Rodd joined the University of California, Berkeley as a Miller fellow, where he continues the search for dark matter.