Dr. David Spergel is a professor in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. His research interest range from the physics of the early universe to the search for extrasolar planets. He is a member of the Microwave Anisotropy Probe science team, part of the Space Interferometery Mission galaxy key project, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory Deep Lensing Survey key project; and a member of the Terrestial Planet Finder science working group.

Spergel was born in Rochester, New York. He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton in 1982 and his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1985. After two years as a long-term member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, he joined the Princeton faculty in 1987. He has held visiting faculty positions at the University of Maryland and the IAS.

Spergel is currently associate chair and director of graduate studies in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences. He also holds an associate faculty appointment in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Spergel is currently president of the International Astronomical Union Commission on the Galaxy. He has served as Chair of the Institute for Theoretical Physics board and on numerous NASA and National Academy of Sciences committees.

Spergel is a MacArthur fellow and was recently listed in Time Magazine as “one of America's top scientists.”