Carlos Frenk

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{{Infobox scientist

| name = Carlos Silvestre Frenk

| birth_name =

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE|FRS|size=100%}}

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| image = Carlos Frenk.jpg

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| caption = Frenk in 2012

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|year=1951|month=10|day=27|df=yes}}

| citizenship = British, German and Mexican

| nationality =

| fields = Astrophysics

| workplaces = Durham University
University of Sussex
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Berkeley

| patrons =

| alma_mater = University of Mexico (BSc)
University of Cambridge (PhD)

| thesis_title = Globular clusters in the galaxy and in the Large Magellanic Cloud

| thesis_url = http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.255877

| thesis_year = 1981

| doctoral_advisor = Bernard J. T. Jones

| academic_advisors =

| doctoral_students = Ben Moore
Gillian Wilson

| notable_students =

| known_for = Navarro–Frenk–White profile

| influences =

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| spouse = Dr Susan Frenk

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| children = 2

| signature =

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| website = https://astro.dur.ac.uk/~csf/homepage/index.html

| footnotes =

}}

Carlos Silvestre Frenk {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE|FRS}} (born 27 October 1951) is a Mexican-British cosmologist.{{Who's Who | author=Anon| title=Frenk, Prof. Carlos Silvestre | id = U16471 | year = 2017 | doi =10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U16471 | edition = online Oxford University Press|location=Oxford}} Frenk graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the University of Cambridge, spending his early research career in the United States before settling permanently in the United Kingdom. He joined Durham University in 1986 and has served as the Ogden Professor of Fundamental Physics at the Durham University Department of Physics since 2001.{{Cite web |title=Carlos Frenk CV |url=http://star-www.dur.ac.uk/~csf/homepage/cv.pdf}} {{small|(90.3 KB)}}

Frenk is most notable for his work on galaxy formation, including his use of complex computer simulations to test theories on the origins and evolution of the universe. Alongside Marc Davis, George Efstathiou, and Simon White, he published a series of papers that established the validity of the cold dark matter hypothesis. He has written over 500 scientific articles and co-authored 5 of the 100 most cited papers ever published within his field. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2004 and has received numerous awards.

Early life and education

Carlos Frenk was born in Mexico City, Mexico, and is the eldest of six children. His younger brother, Julio Frenk, is a public health expert and former Mexican Secretary of Health.{{cite web |last1=Winward |first1=Dylan |title=From public health policy to higher education: Julio Frenk becomes UCLA chancellor |url=https://dailybruin.com/2025/01/08/from-public-health-policy-to-higher-education-julio-frenk-becomes-ucla-chancellor |website=Daily Bruin |access-date=2 May 2025 |date=8 January 2025}} His father, a German-Jewish physician, emigrated from Germany at the age of seven to escape antisemitic persecution before World War II, while his mother was a Mexican–Spanish pianist.{{Cite web |title=Professor Carlos Frenk |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b5s44q |access-date=28 September 2021 |website=Desert Island Discs |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |language=en-GB}} As a youth, Frenk showed some basketball talent and played semi-professionally. His other passion was mathematics.{{cite web |date=8 May 2008 |title=The universe in a desktop |url=https://www.scientific-computing.com/feature/universe-desktop |access-date=27 April 2023 |website=Scientific Computing World |publisher=Europa Science Ltd |language=en}}

Frenk initially studied engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico before switching to theoretical physics, earning his undergraduate degree in 1976. He graduated with the highest marks in his year and was awarded the Gabino Barreda Medal. While visiting Italy, he attended a guest lecture by Martin Rees, then a professor at the University of Cambridge. Encouraged by Rees, Frenk decided to apply to Cambridge rather than pursue his original plan to study at Caltech.

That year, he secured a British Council Fellowship and enrolled at the University of Cambridge to read Part III of the Mathematical Tripos, which he completed in 1977. He remained at Cambridge for doctoral studies under the supervision of Bernard J. T. Jones.{{MathGenealogy|id=156129}} His doctoral research explored the properties of the Milky Way. The idea of dark matter was still "extremely speculative" at this point, but Frenk concluded that the galaxy was surrounded by "embedded" dark matter.{{efn|In layman terms, dark matter is a hypothetical material said to make up 85% of space matter. Dark matter theory emerged as an explanation for why, contrary to Newtonian physics, almost all stars in a spiral galaxy race around the centre at the same speed, rather than moving more slowly the closer to the edge. This observation was first made by Vera Rubin.{{cite web |title=Most of Our Universe is Missing |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/missing.shtml |website=BBC Online |access-date=29 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220924212703/https://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/missing.shtml |archive-date=24 September 2022 |date=10 February 2006}}}} He was awarded his PhD in astronomy in 1981.{{Cite thesis |last=Frenk |first=Carlos Silvestre |title=Globular clusters in the galaxy and in the Large Magellanic Cloud |date=1981 |degree=PhD |publisher=University of Cambridge |url=http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21428132890003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_CAM_ALL&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US |oclc=556480531 |id={{EThOS|uk.bl.ethos.255877}} |website=Cambridge University}}

At Cambridge, Frenk decided to shift his research focus to cosmology because he felt there was still plenty of "exciting problems" within this field left to be solved; he thought particle physics was "moving rather slowly" and, despite help from professors, could not identify a suitable fundamental physics project for doctoral research that engaged his interest.{{cite book |last1=Kibble |first1=Bob |title=Physics in Space |date=1997 |publisher=Heinemann |location=London |isbn=9780435688431 |page=78}} He met future collaborator Simon White for the first time at Cambridge. White, already a post-doc, acted as what Frenk later called his "unofficial supervisor".

Career and research

=Early career, 1981–1986=

Following Cambridge, Frenk worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California. He arrived at Berkeley in 1981, having been invited by Marc Davis, an astronomer who had recently left Harvard. At Berkeley, Davis needed Frenk, with his background in theoretical physics, to assist in interpreting his research, which was based on a survey of approximately 2,200 galaxies conducted during his time at Harvard. Meanwhile, White had also moved to Berkeley. This allowed Davis, Frenk, and White to collaborate on research into the early state of the universe through the use of computer modelling.

As consensus grew during the late 1970s for the existence of dark matter, the neutrino was identified as a natural candidate. Davis, Frenk, and White concluded in a 1983 paper that dark matter could not be made of neutrinos; they argued that, even if neutrinos had the required mass, they would move too quickly to be able to 'clump together' and form galaxies.{{cite book |author1=Pedro G. Ferreira |author1-link=Pedro G. Ferreira |title=The State of the Universe: A Primer in Modern Cosmology |date=2006 |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |location=London |isbn=9780297847403 |page=189}}{{Cite journal |last1=White |first1=Simon |last2=Frenk |first2=Carlos |last3=Davis |first3=Marc |date=November 1983 |title=Clustering in a neutrino-dominated universe |journal=The Astrophysical Journal |volume=274 |pages=L1–L5 |doi=10.1086/184139 |bibcode=1983ApJ...274L...1W}}

Frenk left Berkeley for nearby Santa Barbara in 1983. He was officially attached to the University of Sussex from 1984 to 1985.{{cite web |title=Carlos Frenk |url=https://gruber.yale.edu/cosmology/carlos-frenk |website=Gruber Foundation |access-date=24 April 2023 |date=2011}} During these two years, he frequently divided his time between Britain and America, having established a system of 'transatlantic commuting' by working alternately three months in Santa Barbara and three at the University of Sussex.{{cite web |title=A marriage of minds |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/a-marriage-of-minds/154488.article |website=Times Higher Education (THE) |access-date=24 April 2023 |language=en |date=4 November 1994}}

==Gang of Four==

Computational astronomy was still an emerging discipline, and the trio of Davis, Frenk, and White knew they required extra support to produce more advanced computer code.{{cite book |author1=Dennis Overbye |author1-link=Dennis Overbye |title=Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe |date=1992 |publisher=Harper Perennial |location=New York |isbn=9780060922719 |page=333}} George Efstathiou, a recent PhD from Durham University, was recruited to help them. With the addition of Efstathiou, the group worked on a series of papers; they focused on the supersymmetric theory that dark matter particles were "cold".

In 1985, Frenk and his collaborators published an influential paper in The Astrophysical Journal that revealed the first simulations of cold dark matter.{{cite web |author1=Gianfranco Bertone |author2=Dan Hooper |author2-link=Dan Hooper |title=A History of Dark Matter |url=https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Sept16/Bertone/paper.pdf |publisher=Fermilab |access-date=28 April 2023 |page=61 |date=24 May 2016}}{{efn|Entitled The evolution of large-scale structure in a universe dominated by cold dark matter}} Despite the limited computing power available to them, their research had produced results, and Davis, Efstathiou, Frenk, and White were nicknamed the 'Gang of Four' for the attention their arguments attracted. Their combined efforts confirmed the validity of the "cold dark matter theory" for the formation of galaxies and other cosmic structures. This model later became the prevailing interpretation in cosmology.

=Move to Durham, 1986–2001=

In 1986, Frenk was appointed Lecturer at Durham University, having been recruited by Richard Ellis. He later described finding the physics department in Durham to be "tiny" upon his arrival, with "no theory" and astronomy "non-existent". With Ellis's support, he worked on strengthening the profile of the department in astronomical research, but struggled to access the computing power demanded by his computational approach. After unsuccessful attempts to borrow computers from commercial laboratories, he finally secured a model from the MicroVAX series for £40,000. Frenk was promoted to Reader in 1991 and then made a full Professor in 1993. During this period of his career, he turned down job offers from both the United States and Mexico, including one position that would have more than doubled his salary.

While their papers were impactful, Frenk and White's theories did not represent the scientific consensus at this time. Throughout the 80s and 90s, they faced significant critique by proponents of other dark matter theories. The most prominent alternative theory was Modified Newtonian dynamics, proposed by Israeli physicist Mordehai Milgrom in 1981. However, in 1993, evidence from the Cosmic Background Explorer offered further support for Frenk and White.{{efn|By 2006, despite the popularity of Milgrom's idea in some quarters, dark matter had the backing of the "vast majority" of scientists.}}

Research efforts at Durham were boosted by the 1994 announcement of the High Performance Computing Initiative, which promised more resources from the government in future. By now, White was based at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, and he and Frenk joined their institutions with other computational astronomers to form the Virgo Consortium.{{efn|As of 2018, Frenk continued to serve on the steering committee of the Virgo Consortium.{{Cite web |title=About the Virgo Consortium |url=https://virgo.dur.ac.uk/Page_About/About/index.html |access-date=26 December 2018 |website=Virgo Consortium}}}} This gave Frenk and his team access to the supercomputing centre of the Max Planck Society in Garching, regarded as among the best facilities in the world.

==Navarro-Frenk-White profile==

By the mid-1990s, the cold dark matter model had become widely accepted, and predictions of cosmological simulations shifted from the distribution of cold dark matter halos to the shapes of those halos.

In 1996 and 1997, Frenk, White, and lead author Julio Navarro of the University of Arizona published results based on their analysis of halos from cold dark matter simulations. This collaboration produced the Navarro-Frenk-White profile, a model profile for dark matter halos. The model describes the spatial mass distribution of dark matter within a halo. It remains a widely used standard in the study of dark matter and galaxy formation.

File:Comparison of NFW and Einasto profiles.svg|Comparison of NFW and Einasto profile

File:Julio Fernando Navarro Portrait.png|Julio Navarro

=2001–present=

File:Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics Building, Durham University.jpg

Following an endowment from Computacenter founder Peter Ogden in 2001, Frenk was named the inaugural Ogden Professor of Fundamental Physics at Durham University.{{efn|Ogden had previously studied Physics at Durham before entering the business world.}} He became the Director of the Institute for Computational Cosmology (ICC) upon its establishment in 2001, and held this post until 2020, at which point he was succeeded by Durham colleague Shaun Cole.{{Cite web |title=Professor Frenk's cv |url=http://star-www.dur.ac.uk/~csf/homepage/CV.html |access-date=20 November 2020 |website=star-www.dur.ac.uk}}{{Cite web |title=Institute for Computational Cosmology |url=https://www.dur.ac.uk/research/directory/view/?mode=centre&id=686 |access-date=20 November 2020 |website=Durham University}}

In 2005, as a member of the Virgo Consortium, Frenk was part of a team that produced the Millennium Run. At the time, this was the largest and most realistic cosmological N-body simulation ever, and took 28 days to run.{{cite web |title=Millennium Simulation – the largest ever model of the Universe |url=https://www.dur.ac.uk/news/newsitem/?itemno=3904 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071210071346/http://www.dur.ac.uk/news/newsitem/?itemno=3904 |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 December 2007 |website=Durham University |access-date=27 April 2023 |date=2 June 2005}} In a later interview, Frenk summarised his cosmological simulation work as "cosmic cookery" because it depended on selecting just the right "ingredients", putting them into a computer, and letting them "cook".{{cite book |author1=Adam Hart-Davis |author1-link=Adam Hart-Davis |title=The Cosmos : A Beginner's Guide |date=2007 |publisher=BBC Books |location=London |isbn=9781846072123 |pages=26–27}} He remarked that he and his colleagues at the ICC had "filing cabinets" full of failed universes.

By 2008, Frenk was one of the top 10 most-cited astronomers in the world. In 2020, he was named a Clarivate Citation Laureate for his highly-cited research, which was judged to be of "Nobel Class".{{cite news |last1=Waters |first1=Richard |title=Durham Cosmologist recognised as being "of Nobel class" for work on evolution of the universe |url=https://www.palatinate.org.uk/durham-cosmologist-recognised-as-being-of-nobel-class-for-work-on-evolution-of-the-universe/ |access-date=24 April 2023 |work=Palatinate |date=29 September 2020}} Along with Julio Navarro and Simon White, he was named a potential winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics, though victory at a later date was considered more likely.{{cite news |last1=Hunt |first1=Katie |title=Why it's so hard to guess who's going to get a Nobel Prize |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/02/health/nobel-prize-how-to-win-scn/index.html |access-date=24 April 2023 |work=CNN |date=2 October 2020 |language=en}}{{efn|This was because the award the previous year (to a team led by Princeton astrophysicist Jim Peebles) had also been for work that was within the realm of space science}} In 2021, the trio of Frenk, Navarro and White was again named as a strong contender for that year's Nobel.{{cite web |title=Invisibility cloak and quantum physics tipped for Nobel Prize |url=https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211005-invisibility-cloak-and-quantum-physics-tipped-for-nobel-prize |website=France 24 |access-date=24 April 2023 |language=en |date=5 October 2021}}{{efn|The 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics was eventually awarded to Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann, and Giorgio Parisi.{{cite web |date=5 October 2021 |title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2021/press-release/ |access-date=6 October 2022 |publisher=Nobel Foundation |archive-date=5 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005141209/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2021/press-release/ |url-status=live }}}}

Personal life

Frenk is married to Dr. Susan Frenk, a lecturer in Spanish and Latin American literature and current Principal of St Aidan's College. They have two sons.

Frenk has an interest in architecture, which was inspired by his experience studying at the main campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, a UNESCO World Heritage site.{{cite web |last1=Lock |first1=Helen |title=The cosmologist who makes beautiful university buildings appear |url=https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/nov/30/the-cosmologist-who-makes-beautiful-university-buildings-appear |website=The Guardian |access-date=24 April 2023 |date=30 November 2015}} He was unimpressed with the state of academic buildings when he first moved to Britain, describing them as "dark, claustrophobic and in a state of disrepair" and has taken an active role in the design process of new buildings at Durham University.

Fellowships, awards and distinctions

Frenk was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2004.{{cite web |title=Carlos Frenk |url=https://royalsociety.org/people/carlos-frenk-11462/ |website=Royal Society |access-date=27 April 2023}} He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to cosmology and the public dissemination of basic science.{{London Gazette|issue=61962|supp=y|page=B8|date=17 June 2017}}

He received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2014.{{Cite journal |title=RAS Awards 2014 |journal=Astronomy & Geophysics |volume=55 |date=February 2014 |pages=1.37–1.38 |doi=10.1093/astrogeo/atu040|doi-access=free }}

Other awards include the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2006), the Daniel Chalonge Medal of the Paris Observatory (2007), the George Darwin Lectureship (2010), the Fred Hoyle Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics (2010), the Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2011), the Max Born Prize of the German Physical Society (2017), the Dirac Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics (2020), and the Rumford Medal (2021).{{cite web |url=https://www.ras.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2022-03/George_Darwin%20Lectureship.pdf |title=The George Darwin Lectures |work=Royal Astronomical Society |date=2022 |access-date=2023-03-21}}{{Cite web |title=Fred Hoyle Medal and Prize recipients |url=https://www.iop.org/about/awards/silver-subject-medals/fred-hoyle-medal-and-prize-recipients |website=Institute of Physics |access-date=2023-03-21}}{{Cite web |title=Born medal recipients |url=https://www.iop.org/about/awards/international-bilateral-awards/max-born-medal-and-prize-recipients |access-date=21 March 2023 |website=Institute of Physics}}{{Cite web |title=2020 Paul Dirac Medal and Prize |url=https://www.iop.org/about/awards/gold-medals/paul-dirac-medal-and-prize-recipients |access-date=21 March 2023 |work=Institute of Physics |language=en}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/current/research-news/carlos-frenk-royal-society-award/|website=Durham University|title=Prestigious Award for Galaxy Evolution Research|date=24 August 2021|access-date=21 March 2023}}

In 2023, he was made an Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, his postgraduate alma mater.{{cite journal |title=Honorary Fellows |journal=Annual Report 2023 |date=2023 |page=10 |url=https://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/intranet/kings-annual-report-2023-intranet.pdf |access-date=15 May 2025 |publisher=King's College, Cambridge}}

Media appearances

Frenk made his television debut in 1986 on an episode of the Australian series Beyond 2000. He has made numerous appearances since then, and by his estimation, has taken part in 32 television programmes for the BBC, including The Sky at Night. He has also appeared on BBC Radio on multiple occasions and was interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs, first broadcast in 2018.