Rate My Professor Malcolm Fairbairn

Professor Malcolm Fairbairn is a Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics at King’s College London, within the Faculty of Natural, Mathematical & Engineering Sciences. He leads the Theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology (TPPC) group, a prominent center for particle phenomenology in London, focusing on tests of new physics models beyond the Standard Model, such as supersymmetry, large extra dimensions, and strings. Fairbairn's research operates at the interface of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology, with key interests in dark matter, dark energy, cosmic inflation, and particle astrophysics. He joined King’s College London in September 2007 and has held his professorial position there. His work has attracted substantial funding, including an ERC Consolidator Grant from 2015 to 2020 to investigate dark matter and particle physics in the early Universe. As Principal Investigator, he currently oversees Royal Society projects like "Probing particle nature of dark matter using small-scale distribution" (2023-2026) and "Particle Physics of the Early Universe, Origin of Matter, and Gravitational Waves" (2023-2025). He also participates in STFC-funded initiatives supporting theoretical physics research at King’s.

Fairbairn has produced over 100 research outputs, accumulating more than 5,500 citations. His influential publications include "Dwarf galaxies imply dark matter is heavier than 2.2 × 10−21 eV" (2025, Physical Review Letters, with D.J.E. Marsh), "Non-thermal production of heavy vector dark matter from relativistic bubble walls" (2025, Journal of High Energy Physics), "Axion star explosions: A new source for axion indirect detection" (2024, Physical Review D), "Gravitational waves from supermassive black hole binaries in light of the NANOGrav 15-year data" (2024, Physical Review D), and earlier highly cited papers such as "Stable massive particles at colliders" (2007, Physics Reports, 577 citations), "Compact stars as dark matter probes" (2008, Physical Review D, 385 citations), "Science with the Cherenkov Telescope Array" (2017, 650 citations), and "Simplified models for dark matter searches at the LHC" (2015, 553 citations). These works have shaped dark matter detection strategies at colliders like the LHC, astrophysical constraints, and cosmological models. Fairbairn maintains a personal telescope blog and contributes to public discussions on cosmology.