George Smoot
Astrophysicist, Nobel Prize in Physics 2006 for mapping the early universe
Born 1945
Photo: Nomo michael hoefner http://www.zwo5.de · CC BY 3.0
«Every day I go to work I'm making a bet that the universe is simple, symmetric, and aesthetically pleasing.»
George Smoot led the team that used the COBE satellite to find tiny temperature ripples in the radiation left over from the Big Bang, the seeds from which every galaxy grew. Stephen Hawking called it the discovery of the century.
Key achievements
- Nobel Prize in Physics, 2006, for mapping the early universe
- Led the COBE satellite team that found cosmic ripples
Universities
Pasadena, California
Took bachelor's degrees in mathematics and physics in 1966.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Took his PhD in particle physics in 1970 before moving into cosmology.
Berkeley, California
Professor of physics, where he led the COBE satellite analysis.
Facts
- The COBE map is often called the baby picture of the universe, showing it as it was 380,000 years after the Big Bang.
- In 2009 he won a million dollars on the American television quiz show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader and gave it to charity.
- He appeared as himself in an episode of The Big Bang Theory, a series set at Caltech, his own undergraduate university.
Photographs
Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence are shown on each image.