Joel Primack

Joel Robert Primack (July 14, 1945 – November 13, 2025) was an American physicist. He was a professor of physics and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and was a member of the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics.^[1][2]

Joel R. Primack
Born	Joel Robert Primack (1945-07-14)July 14, 1945 Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
Died	November 13, 2025(2025-11-13) (aged 80)
Occupation	Physicist
Education	Princeton University (BA) Stanford University (PhD)
Period	UCSC: 1973–2025 UC-HiPACC: 2010–2025
Notable awards	Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Senior Award, 1997
Spouse	Nancy Ellen Abrams
Children	1 daughter
Website
scipp.ucsc.edu/personnel/profiles/primack.html

Life and career

Primack received his A.B. from Princeton University in 1966 and his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1970. His fields of study were relativistic quantum field theory, cosmology, and particle astrophysics. He was also involved in supercomputer simulations of dark matter models. He directed the University of California High-Performance AstroComputing Center (UC-HiPACC). Primack is best known for his co-authorship with George R. Blumenthal, Sandra Moore Faber, and Martin Rees of the theory of cold dark matter (CDM) in 1984.^[3][4] He co-authored two books with Nancy Abrams, The View from the Center of the Universe (2006)^[5] and The New Universe and the Human Future (2011).^[6] He played main roles in starting the Congressional Science and Technology Fellowship program, the Forum on Physics and Society of the American Physical Society, and the Science and Human Rights program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1970-1973.^[7] He was a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Primack died on November 13, 2025, at the age of 80.^{[8][better source needed]}