{"id":4633,"date":"2025-06-08T16:09:32","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T20:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/?p=4633"},"modified":"2025-07-03T12:45:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T16:45:15","slug":"navigating-the-cosmos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/2025\/navigating-the-cosmos\/","title":{"rendered":"Navigating the Cosmos"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"An

David Gerdes became dean of the Case Western Reserve University College of Arts and Sciences in March. | Photo by Annie O\u2019Neill<\/p><\/div>\n

When <\/span>David Gerdes<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, PhD, interviewed to be chair of the University of Michigan\u2019s physics department, no one asked how he\u2019d handle campus repercussions from a global crisis. But 13 months into leading the 50-faculty-member department, Gerdes grappled with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sudden pivot to online instruction and remote learning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCrisis management isn\u2019t an interruption of leadership\u2014it\u2019s a big part of the job and an important part of one\u2019s legacy,\u201d said Gerdes, now dean of the <\/span>College of Arts and Sciences<\/span><\/a> at <\/span>Case Western Reserve University<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Hudson, Ohio, native arrived on campus in March\u2014and immediately faced another inflection point as colleges and universities around the country adjusted after a series of federal orders and actions involving research funding, campus programs and international students and scholars.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Gerdes\u2019 temperament, style and experience are well suited to leading amid both challenging seas and exciting opportunities. \u201cI\u2019m the kind of person who would rather be in leadership during times of crisis,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to be in a position to guide the college through this very difficult period and help us emerge stronger.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He arrived at CWRU after extensive accomplishments as a researcher, teacher and leader.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gerdes is a physicist with the kind of curiosity that first led him to study the tiniest subatomic particles and then shift to examining the largest scales of the cosmos. He\u2019s an educator committed to developing novice researchers into published scientists. And he\u2019s comfortable in his own skin; a collaborative leader who, soon after arriving on campus, began meeting individually with the college\u2019s 21 academic department chairs\u2014not in his office, but in their work environments.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>His experience in leading a complex department at a large institution has prepared him well to navigate the complexity, as well as the richness, of our College of Arts and Sciences<\/span>,\u201d said <\/span>Joy K. Ward<\/a><\/strong>, PhD, CWRU\u2019s provost and former dean of the college. \u201c<\/span>On a personal note, David is among the most genuine and thoughtful individuals whom I have met in\u00a0higher education. <\/span>His dedication to fostering collaboration and his deep care for the success and growth of students, faculty and staff make him an exceptional choice to lead our college into its next chapter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe College of Arts and Sciences is a core piece of the Case Western Reserve experience, and it demands an exceptional leader. I am eager to support David as he works to bolster the impressive breadth of education, research, scholarship and creative endeavors taking place across the college.\u201d <\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Case Western Reserve President Eric W. Kaler<\/a><\/em><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Starting out on \u2018top\u2019<\/h2>\n

Gerdes began his research career at the <\/span>Collider Detector at Fermilab<\/span><\/a> (CDF) in suburban Chicago. As a graduate student and then postdoctoral fellow in particle physics, he was part of a team of more than 400 researchers that, in 1995, discovered the \u201c<\/span>top quark<\/span><\/a>\u201d\u2014the heaviest known fundamental particle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The discovery was 20 years in the making and one of the last puzzle pieces in the so-called \u201cstandard model\u201d created to understand the behavior of fundamental particles and forces in the universe. The model predicted six types of quarks, the building blocks of protons and neutrons in atoms. By the 1980s, five had been discovered, but the top\u2014the heaviest and least stable\u2014had long remained elusive until a powerful-enough particle accelerator was built at Fermilab.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe top quark lives a trillionth of a trillionth of a second and is nearly as heavy as a gold atom,\u201d said Gerdes, a core member of the team and later named a fellow of the American Physical Society for that work. \u201cFinding a handful of top quark events among vast numbers of ordinary collisions was like finding a needle in a few billion haystacks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Three years after the discovery, Gerdes joined the University of Michigan (U-M) as an assistant professor. It was 1998, the same year astronomers discovered the expansion of the universe is speeding up, conflicting with Einstein\u2019s theory of general relativity, which says that, over time, gravity should slow the universe\u2019s expansion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Cosmologists faced two possibilities: Either 70% of the universe exists in a mysterious and invisible form, now called <\/span>dark energy<\/span><\/a>; or gravity is weaker on the scale of the cosmos than on Earth\u2014making general relativity not so general.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gerdes joined a team of high-energy-particle physicists and astronomers who came together to design an experiment to probe this cosmological enigma.<\/span><\/p>\n

Their interdisciplinary approach was critical. Gerdes said he and other particle physicists brought a sense of how to organize and sustain a large project from the conceptual stage through data analyses and papers, while the astronomers brought practical details of working with modern telescopes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The team built a large, sensitive camera and mounted it on a telescope in the Chilean Andes. Over six years, the research effort, known as the <\/span>Dark Energy Survey<\/span><\/a>, recorded information from more than 300 million galaxies billions of light-years from Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Early on, Gerdes said, scientists in the collaboration realized the data could be used for other research because the camera captured images of everything that emitted or reflected light in the telescope\u2019s view. While other scientists sought evidence for the existence of dark energy, Gerdes began combing through the data looking for something different.<\/span><\/p>\n

It changed the course of Gerdes\u2019 research\u2014and brought him back to astronomy, the discipline he loved growing up 25 miles south of Cleveland.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"David

David Gerdes became enamored with space after watching the moon landing in 1969 at age 5 and in high school built a couple of telescopes in his basement. This photo is from 1977.<\/p><\/div>\n

An early spark<\/h2>\n

Gerdes first glimpsed his future passion on a black-and-white TV in July 1969. Then 5 years old, Gerdes watched with wide eyes as astronauts landed on the moon. \u201cI was absolutely mesmerized and fascinated by [NASA\u2019s Apollo moon] program,\u201d said Gerdes, who later read every book on space he could find.<\/span><\/p>\n

In high school, he built a couple of telescopes in his basement, even grinding his own mirrors. Skies were dark enough in the 1970s that he could observe the night sky from his backyard in Hudson, also the birthplace of <\/span>Western Reserve College<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gerdes went on to earn a bachelor\u2019s degree in physics from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, a master’s degree in applied mathematics and theoretical physics from Cambridge University in England and a PhD in experimental high-energy physics from the University of Chicago.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Chicago, Gerdes found himself surrounded by people \u201cwho were way smarter than me\u201d and he considered dropping out of physics and pursuing science journalism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI remember making a kind of stealth trip up to the Medill School [of Journalism] at Northwestern,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then I recovered my mojo and never followed through.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Finding a new orbit<\/h2>\n

In 2014, as Gerdes\u2019 colleagues in the Dark Energy Survey sought out dark energy in the database they had amassed, Gerdes pursued something no one had previously considered: mining the database for information about the solar system.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He and his team developed computer codes to sift through thousands of images and locate objects that changed position\u2014meaning they were orbiting the sun\u2014from amid the millions of stars and galaxies that remained in the same place over time.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a particle physicist, Gerdes had used state-of-the-art computational techniques to extract small, interesting anomalies such as the top quark from huge data sets. Now he was applying the same approach to astronomy, searching for extremely faint, previously undetected minor planets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2016, he and his U-M team discovered a potential dwarf planet candidate named DeeDee on the edge of the solar system. It was the size of Ohio and three times Neptune\u2019s distance from the sun; its reflected light was as faint as a candle 100,000 miles away. The find garnered widespread <\/span>attention<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of fell into this research serendipitously,\u201d Gerdes said. \u201cBut that turned into the part of my research program I’m most proud of because it’s the one thing I’ve done that I believe would not have happened at all if I hadn’t done it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

NASA subsequently invited Gerdes to <\/span>join the science team<\/span> of its <\/span>New Horizons<\/span><\/a> spacecraft\u2014launched in 2006 and still traversing the outer reaches of the solar system.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gerdes and his colleagues found hundreds of small icy bodies lying beyond the orbit of Neptune and studied groups of asteroids sharing the orbit of Jupiter and Neptune. And their research has contributed to the understanding of the solar system\u2019s formation and evolution.<\/span><\/p>\n

In recognition of that work, the International Astronomical Union named an asteroid after him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asteroid 208117 Davidgerdes orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter. \u201cThere are over a million asteroids [in that region],\u201d Gerdes said, \u201cso there’s nothing especially unique about it, but it’s cool that Davidgerdes will go around and around in circles forever.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gerdes spent 27 years on the U-M faculty, becoming a professor of physics in 2008 and of astronomy in 2016. He received the university\u2019s highest awards for excellence in undergraduate teaching and was well known for including undergraduates in his research.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tali Khain was among those who benefited. The summer before her first semester at U-M, Khain reached out to a dozen professors. Gerdes was one of the few who replied, agreeing to take her on as an undergraduate in his research group.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was absolutely incredible the time he devoted to training me,\u201d said Khain, who had no research or coding experience when she began working on one of his computational projects. She spent four years working with Gerdes on solar-system research and was the first author on three papers. She received the American Physical Society\u2019s LeRoy Apker Award for excellence in undergraduate research. It \u201cwas the highlight of my college experience,\u201d said Khain, who graduates this summer from the University of Chicago with a PhD in physics.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is almost never a long uninterrupted interval without some major challenge or another. <\/strong>But that is what leadership is about.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 David Gerdes<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Steady at the helm<\/h2>\n

Gerdes spent the past six years as chair of the U-M physics department, focused on recruiting and promoting faculty, modernizing and enhancing the curriculum and increasing donor support.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ana Austin was the department\u2019s chief administrator and watched Gerdes put people first and rely on his values as a guiding principle to help navigate uncertain times.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s really thoughtful about how to ensure that everyone is thriving in their roles,\u201d Austin said. \u201cHe\u2019s very collaborative in his decision-making and has good discernment about when to be gathering input and when to make a decision.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In recent years, Gerdes also chaired the <\/span>Michigan Society of Fellows<\/span><\/a>, a prestigious program for early-career scholars that fosters innovative research and the blending of ideas from different academic perspectives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt really solidified my desire to be in leadership beyond the department-chair level,\u201d Gerdes said. Especially at a liberal arts college, where \u201cinquiry into fundamental questions across all different branches of the humanities and sciences and performing arts all come together under one roof.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Chairing the society gave Gerdes the interdisciplinary perspective the dean\u2019s job requires, said <\/span>Anna Samia<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, PhD, chair of the CWRU Department of Chemistry, the Rudolph and Susan Rense Professor and co-chair of the search committee that recommended Gerdes for the deanship. \u201cHe can embrace the whole complexity of the college,\u201d she said. \u201cEverybody felt we would be heard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For Gerdes\u2014whose family still lives in Hudson\u2014his arrival on campus was a kind of homecoming. Returning to Greater Cleveland was among the reasons he was drawn to the position. But most enticing was what he called the college\u2019s \u201coutstanding\u201d faculty and students; its momentum in research and partnerships with area institutions; the university\u2019s strong leadership; and its $300 million Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building, now under construction and opening next year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Soon after becoming dean in March, Gerdes spoke to the college\u2019s faculty for the first time. Exhibiting the qualities Austin saw in Michigan and Samia saw during a candidate interview, Gerdes said he was optimistic about the college\u2019s future amid the uncertainties now facing higher education.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel a deep sense of care and obligation and responsibility to keep this institution moving forward through some very difficult times,\u201d he said. \u201cI will need your help, I\u2019ll need your patience, I\u2019ll need your support and I\u2019ll need your ideas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI got this amazing opportunity to do research [with David Gerdes] all four years of my undergrad [which] was the highlight of my college experience.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 Tali Khain, who worked in Gerdes\u2019 research group when she was an undergraduate at the University of Michigan<\/i><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\"David

David Gerdes, an avid beekeeper, holds a beehive smoker in his backyard. | Photo by Annie O\u2019Neill<\/p><\/div>\n

Off the clock<\/h2>\n

David Gerdes is an arts and sciences aficionado, both on and off campus.<\/em><\/p>\n

On weekends, he\u2019s often riding his bike, tending the beehives in his Cleveland Heights backyard and seeing CWRU arts or Cleveland Orchestra performances with his wife, Kate Weber<\/strong>, PhD, a healthcare data scientist and clinical assistant professor at the CWRU School of Medicine.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"David

David Gerdes ran cross country in high school and later completed seven marathons and five half-ironman triathlons.<\/p><\/div>\n

At home, they enjoy cooking and fermenting, making their own beer, yogurt, miso and kimchi. \u201cIf you can ferment it, we make it,\u201d Gerdes said. That includes turning honey from their beehives into mead.<\/em><\/p>\n

Once an avid runner\u2014he has completed seven marathons and five half-ironman triathlons\u2014Gerdes said his aging knees forced him to take up cycling. With the weather warming, he aims to make friends in the cycling community and looks forward to just being a member of the group.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t look like a dean when I\u2019m on my bicycle and wearing lycra,\u201d he said, laughing.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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