Tracy R. Slatyer

Tracy R. Slatyer is a theoretical physicist whose research focuses on the unsolved puzzle of dark matter, lying at the intersection of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. She is currently a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

To date, all our evidence for dark matter comes from its gravitational interactions with known particles, but the dark matter could still have subtle interactions with our visible universe that go beyond gravity. In particular, dark matter particles could collide with each other, or decay away, and convert their energy into a spray of visible particles and radiation. If these processes occurred during our universe’s history, the imprints could still be visible in the background radiation that pervades the cosmos or, even more strikingly. in changes to the formation of the first large black holes. At Radcliffe, Slatyer is exploring how these signals might appear in future experiments and what those experiments will be able to tell us as a result about the nature of dark matter and our universe’s history.

Slatyer has received a number of awards for her research, including the American Astronomical Society’s Bruno Rossi Prize, a New Horizons in Physics Prize, and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. She completed her undergraduate studies in theoretical physics at the Australian National University, received a PhD in physics from Harvard, and held a postdoctoral appointment at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton before joining the MIT faculty.