Bri­an Keat­ing is a pro­fes­sor of physics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, San Diego; a Fel­low of the Amer­i­can Phys­i­cal Soci­ety; a com­mer­cial­ly rat­ed pilot; and the direc­tor of the Simons Obser­va­to­ry. He received the 2007 Pres­i­den­tial Ear­ly Career Award for Sci­en­tists and Engi­neers for his work on BICEP. He lives with his fam­i­ly in La Jol­la, California.