About Me


Welcome! I’m a theoretical astrophysicist lucky enough to get to work on big questions like “how did we go from the Big Bang to the Universe we see today.” I love the collaborative aspects of science, and the chance to work in groups with different students and postdocs and colleagues with a broad spectrum of backgrounds and different perspectives. When I’m not doing astronomy or Caltech service-related stuff, my big passions are my family and figuring out how to be a dad of twins, cooking (and experimenting with new techniques, sometimes more successfully than others), watching all the nerdiest TV content (happy to talk sci-fi or fantasy shows or movies, especially TTRPG actual play shows!), and pretending I still have time to play video games. 

If you want, you can check out this interview with me.

Another interview from AAS 228 (2016, but not too out-of-date in the big picture even today), and coverage from Caltech on my work at that meeting

Another thing I love doing when I get the chance is talking about science to a broader audience, especially connected to scientific visualizations (see my animations page or my very old and out-of-date blog) or pop culture. I’ve been fortunate to sit on panels for various SciFi media franchises including the Expanse (video here!), Star Trek, the Time Machine, Doctor Who, and more.


Brief Biographical Information:

Name: Philip Fajardo-Hopkins

Contact: phopkins —— at —— caltech — dot — edu

High School: Saint Ignatius High School, Cleveland, OH, 2000

College: B.A. in Astronomy from Princeton University, 2004

Graduate School: Ph.D. in Astronomy from Harvard University, 2008

Postdoctoral: Postdoc at UC Berkeley (Miller & Einstein Fellow), 2008-2013

Current: Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics in the division of Physics, Math, and Astronomy Caltech, 2013-present


View my CV

© Philip Hopkins 2015