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Katie Mack (astrophysicist)

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Katie Mack
Mack in 2019
Born
Katherine J. Mack

(1981-05-01) 1 May 1981 (age 45)
Alma materPrinceton University (PhD)
California Institute of Technology (BS)
Scientific career
FieldsCosmology
Theoretical astrophysics[1]
InstitutionsPerimeter Institute
North Carolina State University
University of Melbourne
University of Cambridge
ThesisTests of Early Universe Physics from Observational Astronomy (2009)
Paul Steinhardt[2]
Katie Mack talking about cosmology
Published October 2017
Websitewww.astrokatie.com Edit this at Wikidata

Katherine J. Mack (born 1 May 1981)[3] is an American[4] 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.[5][1][6] Mack is also a popular science communicator who participates in social media and regularly writes for Scientific American, Slate, Sky & Telescope, Time, and Cosmos.[7][8]

Early life and education

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External videos
video icon A Tour of the Universe: Women in Physics Lecture
video icon Shells of Cosmic Time

Mack became interested in science as a child and built solar-powered cars out of Lego blocks.[9] Her mother is a fan of science fiction, and encouraged Mack to watch Star Trek and Star Wars.[10] Her grandfather was a student at Caltech and worked on the Apollo 11 mission.[11] She became more interested in spacetime and the Big Bang after attending talks by scientists such as Stephen Hawking.[9]

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.[12] She received her undergraduate degree in physics in 2003.[13][14] Mack obtained her PhD in astrophysics from Princeton University in 2009.[15] Her thesis on the early universe was supervised by Paul Steinhardt.[2][16]

Research and career

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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.[14] Later in 2012, Mack was a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow at the University of Melbourne.[17] Mack was involved with the construction of the dark matter detector SABRE.[18]

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.[19][20] She joined the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in June 2022 as the inaugural Hawking Chair in Cosmology and Science Communication.[21][22] The Canadian multidisciplinary research organization CIFAR named her one of the CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars in 2022.[23]

Mack works at the intersection between fundamental physics and astrophysics. Her research considers dark matter,[24] vacuum decay,[25] the formation of galaxies, observable tracers of cosmic evolution, and the Epoch of Reionization.[26] Mack has described dark matter as "one of science's most pressing enigmas".[27][28] She has worked on dark matter self-annihilation[29] and whether the accretion of dark matter could result in the growth of primordial black holes (PBHs).[30] She has worked on the impact of PBHs on the cosmic microwave background.[31] She has become increasingly interested, too, in the end of the universe.[32]

Public engagement and advocacy

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Mack maintains a strong science outreach presence on both social and traditional media.[33][34] In this wise she has been described by Motherboard and Creative Cultivate as a "social media celebrity".[9][18] 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.[35][36][37][38][39][40] Mack's Twitter account has over 300,000 followers; her response to a climate change denier on that platform gained mainstream coverage,[41][42] as did her "Chirp for LIGO" upon the first detection of gravitational waves.[43][44] 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.[45][46]

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.[47] In February 2019, she appeared in an episode of The Jodcast, talking about her work and science communication.[48] Mack was a member of the jury for the Alfred P. Sloan Prize in the 2019 Sundance Film Festival[49] and writes for Sloan Science & Film about science fiction.[50][51] In 2019, she was referenced on the Hozier track "No Plan" from his album Wasteland, Baby!: "As Mack explained, there will be darkness again".[52]

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.[53][54] It considers the five scenarios for the end of the universe (both theoretically and practically),[53] and has received positive reviews both for the accuracy of its science outreach and its wit.[55][56][57] The book[58] 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.[59][60] Her second book, How To Build A Universe (Theoretically Speaking), delves into the scientific method; it shall be published March 9, 2027 by Simon & Schuster under their Scribner & Sons imprint. Its advance copy blurb is "Brilliant and thrilling!"[61]

Mack hosted a podcast with author John Green called Crash Course Pods: The Universe[62] in 2024.

Personal life

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Mack is interested in the intersection of art, poetry and science.[63] She and the musician Hozier became friends after getting to know one another on Twitter.[64] She is bisexual.[65][66] Mack is also a pilot, having earned her private pilot license during the COVID-19 pandemic.[60] She is now a Yellowbird pilot, flying the de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk, and member of the board of directors at the Canadian Aviation Museum in Windsor, Ontario.[67] Mack became vegetarian at seven years old, and is now vegan.[68]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 Katie Mack publications indexed by Google Scholar Edit this at Wikidata
  2. 1 2 Mack, Katherine J. (2009). Tests of Early Universe Physics from Observational Astronomy (PhD thesis). Princeton University. OCLC 437814758. ProQuest 304982499.
  3. ↑ "Mack, Katie, 1981-". id.loc.gov. Retrieved July 7, 2021.
  4. ↑ "Katie Mack on BlueSky". bsky.app. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
  5. ↑ Katie Mack's ORCID 0000-0001-8927-1795
  6. ↑ Mack, Katie. "A Tour of the Universe (and selected cosmic mysteries)". slideshare.net. Retrieved 2017-07-01.
  7. ↑ Official website Edit this at Wikidata
  8. ↑ Katie Mack on X Edit this at Wikidata
  9. 1 2 3 "Create & Cultivate 100: STEM & Finance: Katie Mack". Create + Cultivate. 21 January 2019. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  10. ↑ Cox, Ana Marie (2018-10-23). "Space the Nation: Katie Mack, the mansplainer slayer, on getting science right". SYFY WIRE. Archived from the original on October 23, 2018. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  11. ↑ Stasio, Dana Terry, Frank. "A Scientist Who Found Her Faith In Physics: Meet Katie Mack, AKA AstroKatie". North Carolina Public Radio. Archived from the original on 28 November 2022. Retrieved 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."{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ↑ "Katie Mack". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  13. ↑ "On Astrophysics, Stardust, and Our (Teeny Tiny) Place in the Universe". Techer. Archived from the original on 2019-03-27. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  14. 1 2 "Katherine (Katie) Mack | Department of Physics | NC State University". 2018-05-24. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  15. ↑ "Katie Mack *09: Taming of the Troll". Princeton Alumni Weekly. 2016-09-26. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  16. ↑ "Katherine Mack". www.planetary.org. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  17. ↑ "Katie Mack's Webpage". www.ph.unimelb.edu.au. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  18. 1 2 Scoles, Sarah (2017-04-10). "I Went to the 'Contact' Radio Telescope with the Astrophysicist Behind Twitter's All-Time Sickest Burn". Motherboard. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  19. ↑ "Katie Mack | Chancellor's Faculty Excellence Program | NC State University". 2018-01-08. Archived from the original on 2020-05-25. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  20. ↑ "Katherine Mack: Assistant Professor". NCSU Physics. Retrieved 2018-01-01.
  21. ↑ Brown, Mike (2021-12-07). "Katie Mack to join Perimeter as Hawking Chair in Cosmology and Science Communication | PI News". perimeterinstitute.ca. Retrieved 2021-12-07.
  22. ↑ @Perimeter (2022-06-03). "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" (Tweet). Retrieved 2022-06-07 – via Twitter.
  23. ↑ "Meet the 2022-2024 cohort of CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars". CIFAR. 2022-06-07. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
  24. ↑ Mack, Katie (2014-02-25). "I'm Looking for Evidence That Dark Matter Messed With Stars and Galaxies". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  25. ↑ "Vacuum decay: the ultimate catastrophe". Cosmos Magazine. 14 September 2015. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  26. ↑ Astrokatie (2012-08-31). "The Universe, in Theory: The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Cosmos". The Universe, in Theory. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  27. ↑ "U of T Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics | Dark Matter, First Light". Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  28. ↑ Slezak, Michael. "Bright light may not be dark matter's smoking gun after all". New Scientist. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  29. ↑ Mack, Katherine J. (11 April 2014). "Known unknowns of dark matter annihilation over cosmic time". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 439 (3): 2728–2735. arXiv:1309.7783. Bibcode:2014MNRAS.439.2728M. doi:10.1093/mnras/stu129. S2CID 118667373.
  30. ↑ Mack, Katherine J.; Ostriker, Jeremiah P.; Ricotti, Massimo (20 August 2007). "Growth of Structure Seeded by Primordial Black Holes". The Astrophysical Journal. 665 (2): 1277–1287. arXiv:astro-ph/0608642. Bibcode:2007ApJ...665.1277M. doi:10.1086/518998. S2CID 15798444.
  31. ↑ Ricotti, Massimo; Ostriker, Jeremiah P.; Mack, Katherine J. (20 June 2008). "Effect of Primordial Black Holes on the Cosmic Microwave Background and Cosmological Parameter Estimates". The Astrophysical Journal. 680 (2): 829–845. arXiv:0709.0524. Bibcode:2008ApJ...680..829R. doi:10.1086/587831. S2CID 11814173.
  32. ↑ "Death of a Universe | College of Sciences | Georgia Institute of Technology | Atlanta, GA". cos.gatech.edu. Archived from the original on 2019-03-26. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  33. ↑ "Electric Lady Influencer of the Week: Katie Mack". Electric Lady. 2017-04-28. Archived from the original on 2017-08-01. Retrieved 2017-07-01.
  34. ↑ Mack, Katie (2017-06-12). "Black Holes, Cosmic Collisions and the Rippling of Spacetime". The Atlantic.
  35. ↑ "Death of a Universe | La mort d'un Univers (25 February 2019) · Indico". Indico. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  36. ↑ "Stories by Katie Mack". Scientific American. Retrieved 2019-03-26.[permanent dead link]
  37. ↑ "Katie Mack". The Guardian. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  38. ↑ "Katie Mack". Cosmos Magazine. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  39. ↑ Mack, Katherine J. (28 April 2014). "From black holes to dark matter, an astrophysicist explains". The Conversation. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  40. ↑ Halton, Mary (2018-03-28). "Ghost galaxy prompts cosmic mystery". Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  41. ↑ "Astrophysicist Katie Mack lays the smackdown on mansplainer with droll Twitter burn". NYT. 2016-08-16. Archived from the original on 2017-12-18. Retrieved 2017-07-01.
  42. ↑ Mezzofiore, Gianluca (16 August 2016). "Astrophysicist had the perfect response to climate change denier". Mashable. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  43. ↑ Castelvecchi, Davide; Witze, Alexandra (11 February 2016). "Einstein's gravitational waves found at last". Nature nature.2016.19361. doi:10.1038/nature.2016.19361. S2CID 182916902.
  44. ↑ Roston, Michael (11 February 2016). "Scientists Chirp Excitedly for LIGO, Gravitational Waves and Einstein". The New York Times.
  45. ↑ "Katie Mack is the 2017 Women in Physics Lecturer". 2017-04-04. Archived from the original on 2020-03-16. Retrieved 2017-07-24.
  46. ↑ Knox Grammar School (2017-08-09), 'A Tour of the Universe' - Dr Katie Mack, 'Women in Physics' lecture, retrieved 2019-03-26
  47. ↑ "Judges and Ambassadors". Nature.com.
  48. ↑ "February 2019: Try turning it off and on again!". The Jodcast. 11 February 2019.
  49. ↑ "Sundance Film Festival: Juries, Awards Night Host Announced - Thursday, January 17th, 2019". Sundance Film Festival. 2019-01-17. Retrieved 2019-03-25.
  50. ↑ "People - Sloan Science & Film". scienceandfilm.org. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  51. ↑ "Sloan Science & Film". scienceandfilm.org. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  52. ↑ Bruton, Louise. "Hozier: 'If I wanted to make a f**king pop song, I would'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  53. 1 2 "Book Deals: Week of January 29, 2018". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  54. ↑ "Book". Katie Mack, Astrophysicist. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  55. ↑ Gleick, James (August 4, 2020). "This Is How It All Ends". The New York Times.
  56. ↑ "Katie Mack: 'Knowing how the universe will end is freeing'". BBC News. August 3, 2020.
  57. ↑ "THE END OF EVERYTHING | Kirkus Reviews" – via www.kirkusreviews.com.
  58. ↑ "15 translations Tweet". Retrieved 2020-12-28.
  59. ↑ Mack, Katie (2020-08-04). The End of Everything. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-9821-0354-5.
  60. 1 2 Eanes, Zachery (2022-11-22). "As NC State astrophysicist Katie Mack's star rises, she ponders how the universe will end". The News & Observer. Retrieved 2023-12-15.
  61. ↑ "How to Build a Universe" – via www.simonandschuster.com.
  62. ↑ CrashCourse (2024-04-17). A Podcast About The Entire History Of The Universe. Retrieved 2024-06-06 – via YouTube.
  63. ↑ "'I want you to live forward, but see backward': a theoretical astrophysicist's manifesto | Aeon Videos". Aeon. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  64. ↑ Philip, Tom (25 April 2019). "Astrophysicist Katie Mack Is Cool With the End of the Universe". inverse.com. Retrieved December 16, 2023.
  65. ↑ Mack, Katie (December 15, 2023). "Katie Mack (@astrokatie.com): '🏳️‍🌈' — Bluesky" – via Bluesky.
  66. ↑ "Katie Mack | 500 Queer Scientists". 500 Queer Scientists. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  67. ↑ "Board of Directors – Canadian Aviation Museum". Retrieved 2025-09-22.
  68. ↑ Sentientism (2023-02-12). How do you find meaning in a universe that's doomed? Dr. Katie Mack @AstroKatie - Ep: 144. Retrieved 2025-08-31 – via YouTube.
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