Katherine Freese

Katherine Freese was born on February 8, 1957 in Freiburg, Germany. She is best known for her work in theoretical astrophysics, and her contributions to early research on dark matter transformed her field. Freese lived in Germany until she was nine, when her family emigrated to the United States. Freese credits both her mother and father for inspiring her to pursue a career in the sciences. Both of her parents were biologists, and she has applauded her mother for providing her “a woman role model every day.”

Freese graduated from high school early, and she attended Princeton at the age of 16. She became one of Princeton’s first women to major in physics. While she received many offers from prestigious graduate programs after her Princeton graduation, she decided instead to travel the world. She enjoyed her time in Japan so much that she wanted to live there – she spent two years in Tokyo working as an English teacher and bar hostess. While on a trip to South Korea, she needed an emergency appendectomy. To pass the time during recovery in the hospital, she decided to read the only book she brought along for her trip: Spacetime Physics. This book ignited her passion for astrophysics, and she was hooked. She then returned to the United States, where she enrolled at Columbia University to study her newest interest: dark matter and the universe.

Consequently, she obtained her MA from Columbia, and she went on to earn her PhD at the University of Chicago. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard University, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Berkeley.