Topic: Dark Matter – Observational Evidence and Experimental Searches
Speaker: Dr. Eric Cotner
Dr. Eric Cotner is a data scientist and theoretical astroparticle physicist. Dr. Cotner graduated from UCLA in 2018 with a PhD in physics under the mentorship of Alexander Kusenko. The focus of his research was exotic dark matter candidates formed from scalar condensates in the early universe, which includes Q-balls, boson stars, and primordial black holes. It is an interesting blend of particle physics, conventional astrophysics, and physical cosmology. During his graduate studies,he taught a wide variety of undergraduate physics classes, ranging from introductory physics 101 for freshman biology majors to upper-division nuclear and particle physics for advanced junior/senior physics majors. He has won multiple awards for teaching and from 2014 – 2017 was a volunteer for UCLA’s Explore Your Universe program.