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About David
David Goldberg, PhD, is Professor and Department Head of Physics in Drexel University’s College of Arts and Sciences. He received his PhD in Astrophysics from Princeton University in 2000, with a dissertation on using perturbative least action to run simulations backwards in time under adviser David N. Spergel; an MA in Astrophysics from Princeton in 1998; and a BA in Astronomy and Physics from Boston University in 1996, summa cum laude with distinction and minors in Mathematics and Religion. Goldberg joined Drexel University in 2001 as Assistant Professor of Physics, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2007 and Professor in 2012, and became Department Head in 2024. He previously served as Associate Head for Undergraduate Studies from 2015 to 2024, Director of Undergraduate Studies from 2007 to 2015, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education in the College of Arts and Sciences from 2014 to 2018, and Interim Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Research from 2008 to 2009. Earlier, he was Gibbs Lecturer in Astronomy at Yale University from 2000 to 2001. His research specializes in theoretical and computational cosmology, extragalactic astrophysics, gravitational lensing, large-scale structure, and clusters of galaxies.
Goldberg is the author of four popular science books: A Relatively Painless Guide to Special Relativity (University of Chicago Press, 2023), The Standard Model in a Nutshell (Princeton University Press, 2017), The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality (Dutton, 2013), and A User’s Guide to the Universe: Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty (Wiley, 2010, with Jeff Blomquist). He edited Stephen Hawking’s The Dreams That Stuff Is Made Of (Running Press, 2011) and A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion: The Essential Works of Albert Einstein (Running Press, 2007). Key peer-reviewed publications include Cosmic Flexion (Physical Review D, 2022), A New Estimate of Galaxy Mass-to-Light Ratios from Flexion Lensing Statistics (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2022), Shape, Colour, and Distance in Weak Gravitational Flexion (MNRAS, 2021), and Flat Maps that Improve on the Winkel Tripel (Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 2021, with J. Richard Gott III and Robert J. Vanderbei). His contributions have advanced gravitational flexion measurements and accurate world map projections. Awards include the Drexel Graduate Student Association Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award (2018), Rothwarf Award for Teaching Excellence (2005), and 10^6 Club recognition for grants over $1 million (2003–2004). Goldberg’s research is currently funded by the National Science Foundation.
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