Michael Dine

Biosketch

Michael Dine is a theoretical particle physicist, noted for work on the Standard Model of particle physics, and possible extensions of our current understanding of the laws of nature, as well as for work in cosmology and astrophysics. He grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and attended The Johns Hopkins University (BS) and Yale University (PhD). Dine was a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and then a Long Term Member Institute for Advanced Study. He served as the Henry Semat Professor City College of the City University of New York before taking on his current position at the University of California Santa Cruz. Throughout his career, he has performed extensive University and professional service. He has been awarded a Sloan Fellowship, an Outstanding Junior Investigator award of the Department of Energy, a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Along with Ann Nelson, he was awarded the 2018 Sakurai Prize of the American Physical Society.

Research Interests

Dine studies an array of questions in concerning our understanding of nature at the smallest and largest scales of distance to which we have access. He has done extensive work on the well established Standard Model of particle physics. The bulk of his research, however, is addressed at issues of what might lie beyond our current understanding of the laws of nature. Particularly notable is his studies of the possibility that nature might exhibit a new symmetry, known as supersymmetry, and work elucidating the challenges and possibilities of connecting string theory to nature. He has also explored many issues in cosmology and astrophysics, where he has proposed one of the leading candidates for the dark matter and several ideas for how the asymmetry between matter and antimatter might arise.