When he was 13 years old, Brian Keating first witnessed the moons of Jupiter, which ignited a life-long passion within him for astronomy. He purchased a telescope and read the works of Galileo. At the age of 17, he became a Physics Major at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and upon graduation in 1993, he pursued a Ph. D. in Experimental Cosmology at Brown University. After receiving his degree, Keating moved to California for postdoctoral studies at Stanford University, then in 2001, enrolled as a National Science Foundation (NSF) postdoctoral fellow at Cal Tech where he worked with renowned astrophysicist Andrew Lange.  Because of his keen interest in the origins of the universe, Keating reasoned that by studying the oldest existing form of radiation, Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), scientists could more easily hypothesize how the universe began. In pursuit of this idea, Keating developed a telescope while at Cal Tech, known as BICEP (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization), which was built and erected in the South Pole.   Upon completion of his time at Cal Tech, Keating went to the University of California, San Diego, where he became a full professor in 2015 and a Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor of Physics. While at UCSD, he received the National Science Foundation career grant in 2005, a Presidential Early Career Award in 2006, and the Buchalter Cosmology Prize in 2014.  He is also the Co-Director of both the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination and the Ax Center for Experimental Cosmology. Keating is the best-selling author of “Losing the Nobel Prize: A story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science’s Highest Honor,” which details his life and focuses on the BICEP project. He is also a pilot with a multi-engine turbine license, and involved in Angel Flight West, a nonprofit that provides air transport for medical procedures to those in need. In addition, Brian Keating is an Honorary Lifetime Member of the National Society of Black Physicists, the Joseph Henry Lecturer of the American Philosophical Society, and the 2019 UCSD Excellence in Stewardship award winner.
Inducted in 2022.
Portrait Location: Hall of Fame Hallway

Induction Video