Down to earth

David Gerdes’s research spanned the cosmos before he came home to lead the College of Arts and Sciences

David Gerdes arrived from the University of Michigan in March of 2025, bringing a reputation for scientific discovery and a fondness for Northeast Ohio. The accomplished physicist grew up in Hudson, east of Cleveland, and graduated from Hudson High School. Inspired by a boyhood interest in space, he earned the first of three physics degrees from Carleton College, followed by a master’s from Cambridge University and a doctorate from the University of Chicago.

As a young experimental high-energy physicist, Gerdes was part of the Fermilab team that discovered the top quark, the heaviest known elementary particle. At Michigan, where he was a faculty member for 27 years, he established himself as an astronomer and astrophysicist, earning renown for discovering celestial bodies beyond Neptune. Since 2014, he has been a fellow of the American Physical Society.

Gerdes was chair of the U-M physics department when he was named dean of CWRU’s College of Arts and Sciences, home to 21 academic departments. He sat down with Case Alumnus to talk about his impressions and his vision.

So you’ve had some time to settle in. What has surprised you about Case?

As an outsider, I thought of Case Western Reserve as a school best known for medicine, the life sciences and engineering. I was less aware of its excellence outside of STEM. I’ve been really impressed with the strength of our humanities, with the vitality of our partnerships with cultural institutions, like the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Play House, Cleveland Institute of Music, the Rock Hall. So it really makes all of University Circle and Cleveland an extension of our campus, and that’s really cool.

You grew up nearby. What’s it been like to come home again?

I’ve been very excited to discover Cleveland as an adult. I didn’t really ever think I’d be back. My parents still live here and it’s been just a real blessing to be close to them at this point in their lives. My dad just turned 90. He’s a retired industrial chemist. Mom was an elementary school teacher. They were both just great about supporting me and my sister and our interests and our learning. In my case, it was a love of astronomy and physics. It’s the same old boring story of a young kid who watched the Apollo landing and got super interested.

But in your case, you followed that dream. When did you decide to become a scientist?

As an undergraduate researcher, I spent a summer at Brookhaven National Lab, working on computer simulations of supernova explosions. It even led to a little paper. That was a great experience for me. It’s what convinced me that I wanted to go to graduate school and be able to do this as a career. It’s why undergraduate research opportunities, and expanding those opportunities, are such a priority to me as dean.

You have enough discoveries for a highlight reel. Tell us about being part of the team that found the missing quark.

My PhD is in experimental high-energy physics, and that means I worked in big experimental collaborations at large particle colliders, in national facilities, with researchers from around the world. One of these experiments, at Fermi National Accelerator, is best known for discovering an elementary particle called the top quark. That discovery launched my academic career. It led to a faculty position at Johns Hopkins.

You soon joined the faculty at the University of Michigan, where you switched to astronomy and astrophysics. How did that pivot come about?

I sometimes joke that I have a 10-year scientific attention span, and then I move on and do something really different. A very important discovery was made in 1988, that the expansion rate of the universe was accelerating. And nobody really saw that coming. That led to the realization of dark energy. It seemed like the kind of truly generational discovery that was worth dropping everything to figure out. A lot of us made that transition. So, for the next 10 years, my attention was devoted to what’s called the Dark Energy Survey.

And you found something?

I was working with graduate students over a summer, looking at the data set in a new way. To our great surprise and delight, we found new solar system objects. The thing that was most fun for me personally was finding a dwarf planet, at that time the second most distant known object in the solar system. It’s not like it’s some profound discovery, but there’s a whole world out there that nobody knew about.

What made you join administration, step back from teaching, and become a department chair?

You know, when you work in teams, or when you work with your students in the classroom, you start to think about systems and how we can make this system better. How can we be more effective? It’s that thought process that led me to administration. That’s what motivated me to take a role in leadership.

How do you like being a dean?

It was a big leap to go from being a department chair to being a dean at another place, but I’m so glad I did it. I love this role. Last March was a bonkers time to start, with all the chaos happening nationally in higher education, the challenges to international students and research funding. So there was no time for training wheels with this job. I just jumped right in. But that being said, this institution has so many strengths. There’s never been more demand for a CWRU education. The faculty have built programs here that students really want.

What has you excited about the future of science and engineering here?

The ISEB (Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Building) will foster collaborations between the College of Arts and Sciences, the Case School of Engineering and the School of Medicine. It’s been great to watch that building go up. It’s designed to bring together interdisciplinary teams to solve big problems, take on challenges too great for any one department to tackle alone. I’m so excited to be part of it. I’m so impressed with the talent and the commitment to excellence I see all around us here. And I’m continually impressed with our students and their creative ways of choosing their own adventures.

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David Gerdes mingles with students at the Junior Senior Scholarship Reception in Tomlinson Hall in March 2025.