Professor, Department of Physics and MIT Kavli Institute, MIT. Formerly Astrophysics Division Head (2019 - 2023). Formerly Class of 1956 Career Development Professor. Formerly Adam J. Burgasser Chair in Astrophysics. Guggenheim Fellow. Fellow of the American Physical Society. Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow. Are you First Generation? I am too, and am happy to talk with MIT students about life as a First Gen student.

Research & science

Departmental webpage.

A schedule of upcoming talks and travel.

My research papers.

Recent teaching

Many spring semesters: 8.962 (graduate general relativity).

F19, F21: 8.033 (undergraduate relativity).

S14, S15, S16, S17, S18: 8.901 (graduate astrophysics I).

F13, F15, F16: 8.07 (electricity and magnetism II).

Past MIT courses:
      I have taught 8.022 quite a few times (lectures S04, S05; recitations S03, F03, F05, F08, F14, S21; lecture notes here).
           2006 School of Science Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
           2005 William W. Buechner Teaching Prize.
      Lecture notes for the last iteration of my undergrad relativity course available here; for the grad version here.
      Plus some other courses (e.g., 8.04, 8.971).

Even further back: Once upon a time, I taught freshman physics at Caltech; here are notes from that course.

Contact info

Images taken from NYT article Decoding the Antiwar Messages of Miniature Protesters in Russia.