Stony Brook University
7:30 pm
Earth and Space Sciences Building, ESS 001
Friday, November 13, 2026
Dark Matter -- the embarrassing failure to understand what the universe is made of
Distinguished Professor Emiritus Paul Grannis
Over the past several decades we have learned that most of the stuff in the universe is different from what we, our planet and the stars are made of. It is sensed through its gravitational pull, but is so far invisible. Nevertheless, if it did not exist, neither would we. We will talk about how we know dark matter exists, and what it might (or might not) be.
Distinguished Professor Paul Grannis was on the Stony Brook faculty from 1966 to 2007, and continues as a research professor. He conducted experiments at accelerator facilities around the world and led a group that discovered the top quark in 1995. His contributions were recognized by a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Physical Society Fellowship, the Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics in 2001, and an honory doctorate from Ohio University in 2009.
