NOBEL Laureate Brian Schmidt’s
discoveries about the expanding universe have generated an expanding clutch of
awards, with his team now claiming a share of one the world’s richest science
prizes.
Professor Schmidt and his team of
Canberra astronomers have been named recipients of the 2015 Breakthrough Prize
in Fundamental Physics for the discovery that the expansion of the universe is
accelerating.The discovery earned Professor Schmidt and fellow researchers the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics. Over 50 physicists will share the $US3 million ($3.5m) purse accompanying the latest honour.
The Breakthrough Prizes come with a prizemoney purse more than twice as big as the Nobels. They are awarded each year in fundamental physics, life sciences and mathematics.
The prizes are bankrolled by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma and Russian venture capitalist Yuri Milner and their wives.
Australia’s Terry Tao was also honoured at the California ceremony, after being named in June as one of five inaugural winners of the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics.
The ceremony featured Hollywood actors Kate Beckinsale, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Cameron Diaz, and was staged at NASA’s Hangar One at the Ames research facility in California. Mr Milner said it was an “uplifting occasion” for all involved.
By John Ross
Top picture:
Left to right, Johns Hopkins
University professor Adam Riess, Berkeley professor of physics Saul
Perlmutter, actor Eddie Redmayne and ANU professor Brian Schmidt attend
the Breakthrough Prize Awards ceremony.
Source: Getty Images
Picture below:
Presenter Benedict Cumberbatch and
Breakthrough Prize Founder Mark Zuckerburg (right) speak onstage during
the Breakthrough Prize Awards Ceremony.
With thanks to The Australian
I am sure that Benedict Cumberbatch and Eddie Redmayne were there because of their recent films - "The Imitation Game" and "The Theory of Everything".
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The former movie is about Alan Turing and the Enigma Machine and the latter is about Steven Hawking - more here.
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