John Cromwell Mather | |
![]() |
|
Born | August 7, 1946 Roanoke, Virginia, USA |
---|---|
Residence | United States |
Nationality | United States |
Fields | Astrophysics, cosmology |
Institutions | NASA |
Alma mater | Swarthmore College University of California, Berkeley |
Known for | Cosmic microwave background radiation |
Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Physics (2006) |
John Cromwell Mather (b. August 7, 1946, Roanoke, Virginia) is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for his work on COBE with George Smoot. COBE was the first experiment to measure "... the black body form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation."
This work helped cement the big-bang theory of the universe using the Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE). According to the Nobel Prize committee, "the COBE-project can also be regarded as the starting point for cosmology as a precision science."[1]
Mather is a senior astrophysicist at the U.S. space agency's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and adjunct professor of physics at the University of Maryland, College Park. In 2007, Mather was listed among Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World.
Contents |
As an NRC postdoctoral fellow at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University, he led the proposal efforts on COBE (1974-1976). The success of COBE was the outcome of prodigious team work involving more than 1,000 researchers, engineers and other participants. John Mather coordinated the entire process and also had primary responsibility for the experiment that revealed the blackbody form of the microwave background radiation measured by COBE. George Smoot had main responsibility for measuring the small variations in the temperature of the radiation.[1]
In the book The Very First Light Mather with co-author John Boslough chronicled his team's work for the general public.[3]
|
Persondata | |
---|---|
NAME | Mather, John |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mather, John Cromwell (full name) |
SHORT DESCRIPTION | American astrophysicist and cosmologist |
DATE OF BIRTH | 1946 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Roanoke, Virginia, United States |
DATE OF DEATH | |
PLACE OF DEATH |