Meet the Staff

Dean Keeton is the Academic Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program, and a Professor of Physics & Astronomy. After growing up in Kentucky, Dean Keeton earned a B.A. in physics from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University. He held research positions at the University of Arizona and University of Chicago before joining the Rutgers faculty in 2004. As an astrophysicist, Dean Keeton studies "gravitational lensing" that occurs when gravity bends light; he uses observations with the Hubble Space Telescope and telescopes around the world to map the mysterious dark matter that surrounds galaxies and pervades the universe. He has published three books and more than a hundred research papers in astrophysics. Dean Keeton has received awards for both research and teaching from Rutgers, and in 2010 he received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Obama.