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Research, Honors, Public Service, and Outreach

Dr. Joel R. Primack specializes in the formation and evolution of galaxies and the nature of the dark matter that makes up most of the matter in the universe. After helping to create what is now called the “Standard Model” of particle physics, Primack began working in cosmology in the late 1970s, and he became a leader in the new field of particle astrophysics.  His 1982 paper with Heinz Pagels was the first to propose that a natural candidate for the dark matter is the lightest supersymmetric particle.  He is one of the principal originators and developers of the theory of Cold Dark Matter, which has become the basis for the standard modern theory of structure formation in the universe.  With support from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the Department of Energy, he has been using supercomputers to simulate and visualize the evolution of the universe and the formation of galaxies under various assumptions, and comparing the predictions of these theories to the latest observational data. He organized and led the University of California systemwide Center for High-Performance AstroComputing (UC-HiPACC) 2010-2015.

Primack convinced the American Physical Society (APS) to create “forums” and helped found the Forum on Physics and Society (FPS) in 1972.  He shared the APS FPS Award in 1977 with Frank von Hippel for their book Advice and Dissent: Scientists in the Political Arena (Basic Books, 1974; New American Library, 1976).  Primack chaired the FPS in 2005 and again in 2019.  Primack was made a Fellow of the APS in 1988 “for pioneering contributions to gauge theory and cosmology.”  He was elected to the Executive Committee of the APS Division of Astrophysics 2001-2002.  He was a member of the APS Panel on Public Affairs (POPA) 2002-2004, and in 2004 he led the POPA study on NASA funding for astronomy. Primack received the 2016 APS Leo Szilard Lectureship Award for his “crucial role in establishing the Congressional Science and Technology Policy Fellowships” and the 2020 APS Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize “for seminal contributions to our understanding of the formation of structure in the universe, and for communicating to the public the extraordinary progress in our understanding of cosmology.”

In 1995 Primack was made a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) “for pioneering efforts in the establishment of the AAAS Congressional Science Fellows Program and for dedication to expanding the use of science in policymaking throughout government.” Primack received the 2024 AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize “for his distinguished contributions to the scientific community, science policy, and society, which have shaped research, created opportunities scientists’ engagement in policy, and improved public understanding of science.”

Primack served on the board of the Federation of American Scientists, and he led the successful FAS effort to end the USSR nuclear reactor powered satellite program.  Primack was a founder of the Union of Concerned Scientists.  His popular articles on efforts to protect the near-Earth space environment have appeared in Astronomy Now, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Science, Scientific American, and Technology Review. He was a member of the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, and helped to establish the AAAS Science and Human Rights program.  He also served as an adviser to and participant in the Science and the Spiritual Quest project, and as chairman of the advisory committee for the AAAS Program of Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion 2000-2002. He has served on numerous advisory panels to DOE, NASA, and NSF. In 2006-07 he served on the Beyond Einstein study of the National Academy of Sciences.

Primack was one of the main advisors for the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s 1996 IMAX film Cosmic Voyage, and he has worked with leading planetariums to help make the invisible universe visible.  In addition to more than 280 refereed technical articles in professional journals, Primack has written many articles aimed at a more popular audience.  These include articles in the World Book Encyclopedia and in publications including American Scientist, Astronomy, Beam Line, California Wild, IEEE Spectrum, Science, Scientific American, Sky and Telescope, the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and the Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics. With Nancy Ellen Abrams he co-authored two books about the meaning of the modern universe, The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos (Riverhead/Penguin, 2006) and The New Universe and the Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World (Yale University Press, 2011), both of which are available in foreign editions.