Professor of Physics
I am a professor in the physics department studying particle physics and cosmology. I try to understand both the nature of the ghostly particles called neutrinos in giant detectors deep underground, and why the expansion of the universe is accelerating using telescopes on top of mountains. My background and training is originally in particle physics and I was part of the team that showed the sub-atomic particles called neutrinos have mass. The leader of our team, T. Kajita was co-awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery which cited the work of our collaboration. I also began the effort in observational cosmology at Duke, joining the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a giant telescope under construction in Chile designed to make a 10 year, three dimensional survey of the entire visible sky. Using the Rubin Observatory, we will focus on examining billions of galaxies, along with supernovae and other astronomical probes to try to determine the nature of the mysterious “Dark Energy” which is unaccountably causing the universe to pushed apart at a faster and faster rate.
Appointments and Affiliations
- Professor of Physics
Contact Information
- Email Address: chris.walter@duke.edu
Education
- B.A. University of California, Santa Cruz, 1989
- M.S. California Institute of Technology, 1991
- Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1997
Awards, Honors, and Distinctions
- Guggenheim Fellowship. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 2023
- Fellow of the American Physical Society. APS. 2017
- 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Breakthrough Prize. 2015
- NSF Career Award. National Science Foundation. 2009
Courses Taught
- PHYSICS 89S: First-Year Seminar
In the News
Representative Publications
- Abolfathi, B., D. Alonso, R. Armstrong, É. Aubourg, H. Awan, Y. N. Babuji, F. E. Bauer, et al. “The LSST DESC DC2 simulated sky survey.” Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series 253, no. 1 (March 12, 2021). https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/abd62c.
- Sanchez, J., C. W. Walter, H. Awan, J. Chiang, S. F. Daniel, E. Gawiser, T. Glanzman, et al. “The LSST DESC data challenge 1: Generation and analysis of synthetic images for next-generation surveys.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 497, no. 1 (September 1, 2020): 210–28. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa1957.
- Tanaka, M., K. Abe, C. Bronner, Y. Hayato, M. Ikeda, S. Imaizumi, H. Ito, et al. “Search for proton decay into three charged leptons in 0.37 megaton-years exposure of the Super-Kamiokande.” PHYSICAL REVIEW D 101, no. 5 (March 25, 2020). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.101.052011.