Carlos Frenk

Born on 27 October 1951, Carlos Frenk is a cosmologist who uses computer simulations to test theoretical models of the universe’s structure. He received his BSc in theoretical physics from the University of Mexico and his PhD in astronomy from Cambridge University. Since 1985 he has been at Durham University in the UK, becoming a full professor in 1993 and director of the Institute of Computational Cosmology in 2001. In 2004 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Frenk’s research spans cosmology, large-scale structure, galaxy formation, and supercomputer simulations of the formation of cosmic structures. In the 1980s Frenk and fellow cosmologists Marc Davis, George Efstathiou, and Simon White ran a series of simulations that showed that cold dark matter theories could best explain the observed structure of the universe. Frenk is a longtime leader of the Virgo consortium , an international collaboration involved in cosmological supercomputer simulations. His awards include the 2011 Gruber Cosmology Prize and the 2014 Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. (Photo credit: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation)

Date in History: 27 October 1951