Phone: (773)702-7974
Location: ERC 499E
Email: mturnerkicp.uchicago.edu
WWW: Web Site

Theoretical astrophysics, cosmology and elementary particle physics, cosmology. Michael S. Turner is a theoretical cosmologist, who coined the term dark energy.

Turner helped establish the interdisciplinary field that combines together cosmology and elementary particle physics to understand the origin and evolution of the Universe. His research focuses on the earliest moments of creation, and he has made contributions to inflationary cosmology, particle dark matter and structure formation, the theory of big bang nucleosynthesis, and the nature of dark energy.

• 2018 APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research, APS News
• KICP Director Michael Turner presented the 2018 Oppenheimer Lecture at the University of California at Berkeley, KICP News
• Joshua Frieman will become the Head of Particle Physics Division at Fermilab, KICP News
• In 2017, a big year for science, we learned from cosmic discoveries, The Hill
• Eclipse reflects sun's historic power, UChicago News
• Michael Turner has been elected to American Philosophical Society, UChicago News
• Cosmos Controversy: The Universe Is Expanding, but How Fast?, The New York Times
• "Bruce Winstein", biographical memoir by Mel Sochet and Michael Turner, KICP News
• The Particle That Wasn't, The New York Times
• Prof. Michael Turner's May 5 lecture at Adler Planetarium to be simulcast nationally, UChicago News
• Congratulations to Joshua Frieman!, KICP News
• Michael Turner discusses LIGO & the detection of gravity waves, STEM-Talk
• Gravitational Waves Discovery Confirms Einstein's Theory, Here and Now
• Searching for dark matter: Inside the Xenon1T detector, KICP News
• Eckhardt Research Center to begin new phase of ambitious science, The University of Chicago News Office
• A Japanese physicist and a Canadian physicist helped to show subatomic 'neutrinos' have mass, Inside Science
• Turner on Physics Nobel: Research Showing Neutrinos Have Mass Awarded Nobel Prize, Here and Now
• John Carlstrom has received 2015 Gruber Cosmology Prize, KICP News
• Live Session with Michael Turner, Livestream.com
• One Hundred Years of General Relativity, Science Friday
• Kavli Foundation discussion: "Instantaneous Cosmic Growth: Have We Found the Smoking Gun?", The Kavli Foundation
• "The Power of Curiosity", by Michael S. Turner, Science 2 May 2014: Vol. 344 no. 6183 p. 449, Science
• Tremors from cosmic discovery reverberate through Kavli Institute, The University of Chicago News Office
• A big-bang theory gets a big boost: Evidence that vast cosmos was created in split second, The Washington Post
• Telescope captures view of gravitational waves: Images of the infant Universe reveal evidence for rapid inflation after the Big Bang, Nature
• Cosmic WOW: BICEP2 announces evidence for the gravity waves produced by inflation!, KICP News
• A peek at the the 4th floor of the William Eckhardt Research Center building, KICP News
• Fred Kavli Friend and Benefactor of the KICP, 1927-2013, KICP News
• Angela Olinto's cosmic needle in a haystack, American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Michael S. Turner, The Nora and Edward Ryerson Lecture: Quarks and the Cosmos, The University of Chicago News Office
• Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to release first results, BBC News Science & Environment
• Roundtable Discussion: Are We Closing In On Dark Matter?, Kavli Foundation News
• Leading the quest to crack cosmological mysteries, The University of Chicago News Office
• The Directors of the six Kavli Institutes in astrophysics met to discuss new ways to cooperate, KICP News
• Cosmologists Michael Turner and Joshua Frieman discuss Dark Energy and DES in an article in The Economist, The Economist
• Cosmologists Seek Unified Picture of the Universe, The University of Chicago News Office
• Leading the quest to crack cosmological mysteries, The University of Chicago News Office
• Ted Ressell becomes the new KICP Assistant Director, KICP News
• Discovery science pays off, Arete, The University of Chicago
• The proposal for our new Physics Frontier Center -- Pushing Cosmology to the Edge -- has been funded by NSF, KICP News
• Michael Turner says We must finish the James Webb Space Telescope, KICP News
• Michael Turner expects scientists to detect dark matter this decade, MSNBC
• KICP director Michael Turner elected Vice President of the American Physical Society, KICP News
• Michael S. Turner to become American Physical Society's first astrophysicist president, The University of Chicago News Office
• ASTRO 2010: Charting the Next Decade in Astronomy, Kavli Foundation
• Celestial wish list: Astronomers prioritize projects for the coming decade, ScienceNews
• Michael Turner named new Director of the KICP, The University of Chicago News Office
• Dark Energy: The Biggest Mystery in the Universe, Smithsonian magazine
• Fermilab physicists honored for uniting physics and cosmology, Fermilab Today
• Edward Kolb and Michael Turner share the 2010 Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics, The University of Chicago News Office
• Public invited to cosmic tour of universe Dec. 5, The University of Chicago News Office
• Can one theory explain all things physical?, MSNBC
• Prof. Michael Turner comments on the Nobel Prize in Physics, The New York Times
• Evidence of "dark energy", Newsday
• Adjustments to Einstein's relativity theory, The New York Times
• Michael Turner appointed Assistant Director of Mathematical and Physical Sciences Division at NSF, The University of Chicago, News Office

• KICP Event, Symposium: Celebrating 50 years of Fermilab-UChicago Collaboration
• KICP Talk, Michael Turner, "The origin of our universe: what we know for sure and the big mysteries"
• KICP Talk, Rocky Kolb and Michael Turner: "How Fermilab changed the course of cosmology"
• KICP Event, Screening & Discussion: STARMEN
• KICP Cosmology Course, "Observing Einstein's Outrageous Universe", Short Course for Museum & Planetarium Staff (course director)
• KICP Lecture, The 2016 Summer Kavli Fulldome Lecture: Michael Turner, "From The Big Bang To The Multiverse And Beyond"
• KICP Event, The Future of Cosmological Physics: Scott Dodelson, "Cosmic Coda"
• Lecture, Kavli Lecture: Michael Turner, "From The Big Bang To The Multiverse & Beyond"
• KICP Talk, Michael S. Turner, "The Realm of Mystery"
• KICP Event, Discussion on the Mid-Decadal review, "New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics"
• KICP Event, World Science Festival Live Stream viewing and discussion: "To Infinity and Beyond: The Accelerating Universe"
• PhD Thesis Defense, Youngsoo Park, "Combined Probes Analysis with Galaxy Clustering and Galaxy-Galaxy Lensing in the Dark Energy Survey"
• KICP Event, NSF's Google Hangout with KICP
• KICP Cosmology Course, "Evolving Universe", Short Course for Museum & Planetarium Staff (course director)
• KICP Workshop, COSMO-2014: International Conference on Particle Physics and Cosmology (organizer)
• KICP Event, Kavli Foundation Webcast: Secrets of the Universe's First Light
• KICP Workshop, Kavli workshop for scientists: "Communicating Science" (organizer)
• KICP Workshop, First Annual GMT Community Science Meeting: "Cosmology in the Era of Extremely Large Telescopes"
• KICP Lecture, Ryerson Lecture: Michael S. Turner, "Quarks and the Cosmos"
• KICP Lecture, The Artful Universe with cosmologist Michael S. Turner
• KICP Workshop, Sackler colloquium: "Dark Matter Universe: On the Threshhold of Discovery" (organizer)
• KICP Cosmology Course, "Dark Matters", Short Course for Museum & Planetarium Staff (course instructor)
• PhD Thesis Defense, Melanie Simet: "Galaxy cluster center detection methods with weak lensing"
• PhD Thesis Defense, Immanuel Buder: "Measurement of the CMB Polarization at 95 GHz from QUIET"
• KICP Workshop, PFC3 Collaboration Meeting
• KICP Workshop, 19th International Conference on Supersymmetry and Unification of Fundamental Interactions (organizer)
• KICP Workshop, BruceFest: Bruce Winstein Symposium
• KICP Lecture, Michael Turner, Works of the Mind Lectures: How Many Universes?
• KICP Lecture, Charles Steidel, 2010 Gruber Prize winner: "Observations of Structure Formation in the Adolescent Universe" (organizer)
• KICP Workshop, Midwest Town Hall meeting on New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics
• KICP Cosmology Course, "The Dark Universe", Cosmology Short Course (course instructor)
• KICP Talk, Michael Turner, The Dark Side of the Universe: Beyond stars and the starstuff we are made of"
• KICP Workshop, Michael Turner's Universe: 60th Birthday Extravaganza
• KICP Talk, Michael Turner, Rocky Kolb, and Joe Lykken: "The Dark Side of the Universe: Dark Matter and Dark Energy"
• PhD Thesis Defense, Charles Shapiro, "The effects of neglecting reduced shear on dark energy constraints from three-dimensional weak lensing methods" (PhD advisor)
• KICP Workshop, Digital Sky Academy
• KICP Talk, Cafe Scientifique: Michael S. Turner, "The Dark Side: from Dark Energy and Dark Matter to Washington and Science Policy"
• KICP Cosmology Course, "Chicago Maps the Cosmos", Cosmology Short Course (course instructor)
• KICP Workshop, Cosmic Cartography Journey Through the Universe
• KICP Seminar, Trends in Basic Research Funding: From NSF to the American Competitiveness Initiative
• KICP Workshop, New Views of the Universe, Kavli Institute Inaugural Symposium in memory of David Schramm (organizer)
• PhD Thesis Defense, Vikram Duvvuri, "Modified-Gravity as an Alternative to Dark Energy" (PhD advisor)
• KICP Workshop, Ground-Based Supernova Surveys (organizer)
• KICP Cosmology Course, "Origin of Structure in the Universe", Cosmology Short Course (course instructor)
• KICP Workshop, Predictions of Cold Dark Matter models on small scales: current status and future tests (organizer)
• KICP Workshop, Cosmological Probes of Dark Energy (organizer)
• KICP Cosmology Course, "The New Cosmology: From Quantum Fuzz to the Accelerating Universe", Cosmology Short Course (course instructor)
• KICP Seminar, How CDM explains Milgrom's Law

Past Students

GRADUATE: Charles Shapiro (2008)

• Budget and Policy committee (Chair)
• Wednesday Colloquium committee (Chair)
• Friday Seminar committee (Chair)
• Appointments committee (Ex-officio)
• PFC Executive committee
• Executive committee (Chair)
• Space committee (Chair)

2015 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002


Latest Journal Publications

1. "Cosmology: A story of cosmic proportions", Nature, Volume 526, Issue 7571, pp. 40-41 (2015) (Oct 2015)
2. "Beyond H 0 and q 0: Cosmology is No Longer Just Two Numbers", The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 769, Issue 2, article id. 133, 8 pp. (2013) (Jun 2013)
3. "Evidence for Type Ia Supernova Diversity from Ultraviolet Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope", The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 749, Issue 2, article id. 126, 17 pp. (2012) (Apr 2012)
4. "The dark clouds over US astronomy", Nature, Volume 476, Issue 7359, pp. 127 (2011) (Aug 2011)
5. "Cosmology: No miracle in the multiverse", Nature, Volume 467, Issue 7316, pp. 657-658 (2010) (Oct 2010)
6. "αβγ, Hoyle, and the history of nucleosynthesis", Physics Today, vol. 62, issue 5, p. 10 (n/a 2009)
7. "A century of physics: 1950 to 2050", Physics Today, vol. 62, issue 9, p. 8 (n/a 2009)
8. "Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe", Annual Review of Astronomy & Astrophysics, vol. 46, Issue 1, pp.385-432 (Sep 2008)
9. "Cosmology: Inflation alive and well", Nature Physics, Volume 4, Issue 2, pp. 89-91 (2008) (Feb 2008)
10. "Explained in 60 Seconds", Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal, Volume 2, p.4 (Feb 2008)
11. "Cosmic Acceleration, Dark Energy, and Fundamental Physics", Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, Volume 76, Issue 11, pp. 111015 (2007) (Nov 2007)
12. "Quarks and the Cosmos", Science, Volume 315, Issue 5808, pp. 59- (2007) (Jan 2007)
13. "What Do We Really Know about Cosmic Acceleration?", The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 649, Issue 2, pp. 563-569 (Oct 2006)
14. "Book Review: THE VIEW FROM THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE / Riverhead, 2006", Physics Today, vol. 59, no. 11, p. 57 (Nov 2006) (n/a 2006)
15. "Cosmology of generalized modified gravity models", Physical Review D, vol. 71, Issue 6, id. 063513 (Mar 2005)
16. "Is cosmic speed-up due to new gravitational physics?", Physical Review D, vol. 70, Issue 4, id. 043528 (Aug 2004)
17. "Probing dark energy with supernovae: Exploiting complementarity with the cosmic microwave background", Physical Review D, vol. 67, Issue 8, id. 083505 (Apr 2003)
18. "Accelerators and Dinosaurs", Physics Today, vol. 56, issue 9, p. 10 (n/a 2003)
19. "Dark Energy: Just What Theorists Ordered", Physics Today, vol. 56, issue 4, p. 10 (n/a 2003)

Latest Conference Proceedings

1. "Quarks and the Cosmos", Quest for the Origin of Particles and the Universe - Proceedings of the KMI Inauguration Conference. Edited by Aoki Yasumichi et al. Published by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., 2013. ISBN #9789814412322, pp. 90-102 (Mar 2013)
2. "Dark Energy, Particle Physics and Cosmology", American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #220, #316.01 (May 2012)
3. "2011 Nobel Prize Perspectives", American Physical Society, APS March Meeting 2012, February 27-March 2, 2012, abstract #X60.001 (Feb 2012)
4. "The Inner Space/Outer Space Connections: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Inflation and All That", American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #314.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011 (Jan 2011)
5. "A Burger, a Beer, and a Side of Science", Preparing for the 2009 International Year of Astronomy: A Hands-On Symposium ASP Conference Series, Vol. 400, proceedings of the conference held 1-5 June, 2008, in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, in Conjunction with the 212th Meeting of the American Astronomica
6. "TBA", American Physical Society, 2008 APS April Meeting and HEDP/HEDLA Meeting, April 11-15, 2008, abstract #S5.002 (Apr 2008)
7. "Quarks to Cosmos: Breaking News at the Interface of Particle, Nuclear and Astrophysics", American Physical Society, 2008 APS March Meeting, March 10-14, 2008, abstract #T1.001 (Mar 2008)
8. "Bold Dreams and Big Questions: The Future of Astronomy in the 21st and NSF's Role", American Astronomical Society Meeting 207, #108.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 37, p.1337 (Dec 2005)
9. "Global Science: Brave New World", American Physical Society, APS April Meeting, April 16-19, 2005, abstract #M6.001 (Apr 2005)
10. "Exploring the Complementarity of SNAP and Planck", American Astronomical Society, 201st AAS Meeting, #97.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 34, p.1265 (Dec 2002)

Current & Future Visitors:

1. Brian Keating, UC San Diego

Past Visitors:

1. Peter Adshead, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2018)
2. Katherine Freese, University of Michigan (2018)
3. Silvia Galli, IAP (2018)
4. Rush Holt, AAAS (2018)
5. Laura Trouille, The Adler Planetarium and Northwestern University (2018)
6. Erik Verlinde, University of Amsterdam (2018)
7. J. Richard Bond, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Toronto (2017)
8. Lawrence Krauss, Arizona State University (2017)
9. Joe Silk, IAP/JHU (2017)
10. Albert Stebbins, Fermilab (2017)
11. Daniel Eisenstein, Harvard University (2015)
12. Carlos Frenk, Durham University (2015)
13. Marc Kamionkowski, Johns Hopkins University (2015)
14. Maura McLaughlin, West Virginia University (2015)
15. Jean-Loup Puget, Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, univeresité Paris Sud, (2015)
16. Simon White, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (2015)
17. Silvia Galli, IAP (Paris) (2014)
18. Peter Michelson, Department of Physics, Stanford University (2014)
19. George Efstathiou, University of Cambridge (2011)
20. Tom Weiler, Vanderbilt University (2003)
21. Rachael Bean, Imperial College, London (2002)
22. Lorenzo Cazon Boado, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (2002)
23. Bernard Schutz, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) (2002)