Brian P. Schmidt
(born February 24, 1967) is a Distinguished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and
astrophysicist
at the
Australian National University
Mount Stromlo Observatory
and Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics. He is widely known for his research in using
supernovae
as Cosmological Probes. He currently holds an Australia Research Council Federation Fellowship. Schmidt shared both the 2006
Shaw Prize in Astronomy
and the 2011
Nobel Prize in Physics
with
Saul Perlmutter
and
Adam Riess
for providing evidence that the
expansion of the universe
is accelerating.
Schmidt, an only child, was born February 24, 1967 in the
Montana
mountains. His father, Dana C. Schmidt, was a fisheries biologist. When he was 13, his family moved to
Anchorage, Alaska
.
[1]
[2]
Schmidt went to
Bartlett High School
in Anchorage, and graduated in 1985. He has said that he wanted to be a
meteorologist
"since I was about five-years-old" but "... I did some work at the US National Weather Service up in Anchorage and didn't enjoy it very much. It was less scientific, not as exciting as I thought it would be - there was a lot of routine. But I guess I was just a little naive about what being a meteorologist meant." He decided to study astronomy just before he started at university.
[3]
He was graduated BS(Physics), BS(Astronomy) from the
University of Arizona
in 1989.
[4]
He received his MA (1992) and then
PhD
from
Harvard University
in 1993.
[5]
Schmidt's PhD thesis was supervised by
Robert Kirshner
and used
Type II Supernovae
to measure the
Hubble Constant
.
At Harvard, he met his future wife, an Australian, Jenny Gordon who was studying for a PhD in
economics
. In 1994, he moved to Australia.
[1]
[4]
Schmidt was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
(1993-94) before moving to
Mount Stromlo Observatory
in the
Australian Capital Territory
in 1995.
Schmidt and
Adam Riess
led the
High-z Supernova Search Team
which found evidence that the Universe's expansion rate is now
accelerating
. They discovered this by looking at Type 1a Supernova.
[6]
The discovery was the opposite of the current theory that the expansion of the universe was slowing down. By studying the color shifts in the light from the supernova from Earth, they discovered that these billion-year old nova were still accelerating.
[7]
This result was also found about the same time by the
Supernova Cosmology Project
, led by
Saul Perlmutter
.
[7]
With two studies getting the same result scientists now accept the
accelerating universe
theory. New research is now trying to understand the nature of the universe, such as the existence of
dark matter
.
[7]
The discovery of the accelerating universe was named 'Breakthrough of the Year' by Science Magazine in 1998. Schmidt was jointly awarded the 2011
Nobel Prize in Physics
along with Reiss and Perlmutter for their groundbreaking work.
[7]
Schmidt is currently leading the
SkyMapper
telescope Project and the associated Southern Sky Survey.
Schmidt has received the Australian Governments
Malcolm McIntosh Prize
in 2000,
Harvard University
's Bok Prize in 2000, the
Australian Academy of Science's
Pawsey Medal
Medal in 2001, and the Vainu Bappu Medal of the Astronomical Society of India in 2002. He was the
Marc Aaronson
Memorial Lecturer in 2005, and in 2006, he shared the
Shaw Prize
in
Astronomy
with
Adam Riess
and
Saul Perlmutter
.
[8]
[9]
Schmidt and the other members of the High-Z Team (the set defined by the co-authors of Riess et al. 1998) shared the 2007
Gruber Cosmology Prize
, a $500,000 award, with Saul Perlmutter of the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
and the Supernova Cosmology Project (the set defined by the co-authors of Perlmutter et al. 1999) for their discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe.
Schmidt, along with Riess and Perlmutter, jointly won the 2011
Nobel Prize in Physics
for their observations which led to the discovery of the accelerating Universe.
[8]
- ↑
1.0
1.1
"Restless experimenter",
The Canberra Times
, 6 April 2011, p 8.
- ↑
"FACTBOX-Nobel physics prize winners",
Reuters News
, 4 October 2011.
- ↑
"Star turn in global success",
The Canberra Times
, 1 July 2006, p B02.
- ↑
4.0
4.1
"SCHMIDT, Brian" in
Who's Who Live
Archived
2019-10-17 at the
Wayback Machine
(Australia), Crown Content Pty Ltd accessed 4 October 2011.
- ↑
The Universe from Beginning to End
, Pollock Memorial Lecture, April 2009, The University of Sydney accessed 5 October 2011.
- ↑
Cosmology
ABC Catalyst segment on Cosmology, with Brian Schmidt, Ray Norris, & Lawrence Kraus
- ↑
7.0
7.1
7.2
7.3
Palmer, Jason (2011-10-04).
"Nobel physics prize honours accelerating Universe find"
.
BBC
. Retrieved
2011-10-05
.
- ↑
8.0
8.1
"Nobel physics prize honours accelerating Universe find"
.
BBC News
. October 4, 2011.
- ↑
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-04/australian-astrophysicist-wins-nobel-prize/3209216%7Ctitle=
Australian Astrophysicist Wins Nobel Prize
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