Konstantin Batygin

Forbes named professor Konstantin Batygin the “next physics rock star” in its 2015 list of “30 Under 30: Young Scientists Who Are Changing the World.” He received his bachelor’s degree in physics from University of California, Santa Cruz in 2008, before pursuing graduate studies at California Institute of Technology. To date, Batygin has authored over seventy scientific publications, and his research has been featured on the pages of Nature as well as the front cover of Scientific American. In 2016, Batygin sparked international headlines with the announcement of the existence of an as-yet-unobserved ninth planet in the solar system. This discovery, conducted with research partner Mike Brown, fueled a worldwide race among astronomers to locate "Planet Nine.” Prior to joining the faculty at California Institute of Technology in 2014, Batygin was a postdoctoral scholar at Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur in Nice, France, and Harvard University. When not doing science, he moonlights as the lead singer and guitarist in the rock band, The Seventh Season.