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Nobel for Gruber Prize winner

Blitz Desk

John Mather, who led the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) team to the 2006 Gruber Cosmology Prize, was named co-winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation. He shares the award with George F. Smoot of the University of California at Berkeley. Mather is a Senior Astrophysicist in the observational Cosmology Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

After the launching of the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) by a Delta rocket in 1989, Dr. John Mather and the COBE Team were able to look far back in time to confirm that the universe was born in a hot Big Bang. The COBE, NASA's first dedicated cosmology mission, carried a Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment to search for cosmic infrared background radiation, a Differential Microwave Radiometer to map cosmic radiation sensitively, and a Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer to compare the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation with a precise blackbody. Each COBE instrument yielded a major cosmological discovery.

Last August, Mather and the COBE team were awarded the Gruber Cosmology Prize at the International Astronomical Union's General Assembly in Prague for groundbreaking studies confirming that our universe was born in a hot Big Bang. As COBE's scientific leader, Mather was responsible for keeping a 1,500-person project team focused on the science.

In its description of the COBE project, the Nobel committee called Mather “the true driving force behind this gigantic collaboration” and went on to credit the precise cosmological calculations made possible by COBE with completing cosmology's transition from “a kind of philosophical speculation” to “a true science.” Through its measurements of the cosmic microwave background spectrum, COBE was able to demonstrate that nearly all radiant energy in the universe was released within one year of the Big Bang.

Mather is currently working with the James Webb telescope, which, he says, “will help us to see the very first objects formed after the Big Bang.” It is his hope that predictions about what we will find regarding the nature of those first objects and the sequence of star and galaxy formation can be verified. He considers it likely that, through direct imaging, we can attempt to see the Population-3 stars or giant supernovae that made up the first ordinary galaxies.

The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation honors and encourages educational excellence, social justice and scientific achievements that better the human condition.

The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation is a private, United-States based philanthropic organization established in 1993 under the 501c3 section of U.S. Corporate Law funded entirely by Peter and Patricia Gruber, who serve as its Chairman and President, respectively. The Foundation is headquartered in St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands, and maintains a small branch office in New York City.

A major focus of the Foundation's philanthropy is its International Prize Program, created to recognize excellence in science and humanities by highlighting five fields that create a better world: Cosmology, Genetics, Justice, Women's Rights and Neuroscience. Each Prize is given annually, and carries an unrestricted cash award of $500,000 and a gold medal. To further support Cosmology, Genetics and Neuroscience, the Gruber Foundation has affiliated with preeminent science organizations to award fellowships to promising young scientists in those fields.

The Foundation's philanthropy in the Virgin Islands, the community of its headquarters, is focused on funding local schools, public and private, supporting local social service organizations, as well as supporting cultural initiatives that enrich the community. Based on a program developed by the Templeton Foundation, in partnership with the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands and local education officials, the Foundation designed the Virgin Islands' Laws of Life Essay Contest to be presented through English classes at the territory's four public high schools. ...