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Adam Riess

! scientist · # tag · @ author
1969– · Cosmology, Astrophysics, Observational astronomy
American astrophysicist, laureate of the 2011 Nobel Prize for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe. He led the High-Z Supernova Search Team, which through observations of distant Type Ia supernovae proved that the expansion is not slowing down but accelerating, leading to the concept of dark energy — a mysterious substance making up about 68% of the Universe.

Biography

Born in Washington, D.C. (USA). Graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earned his doctorate at Harvard. Worked at the University of California, Berkeley, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and Johns Hopkins University. Collaborated closely with Brian Schmidt; the project competed with Saul Perlmutter's team. Nobel Prize in Physics (2011), Shaw Prize, and other awards.

Key discoveries

💡 At the beginning of the project, many were skeptical about the accuracy of measurements based on supernovae. Riess and his colleagues used data from the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories; their race with Perlmutter's team became one of the most dramatic in astrophysics. The discovery of acceleration spawned thousands of papers and made dark energy one of the biggest mysteries in physics.
Quote: "Sometimes the Universe turns out to be trickier than we think, and that is the most exciting moment for a scientist."
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Related tags
dark energyexpansion of the universesupernovagalaxyHubble Space Telescope
Related laws
Hubble's law
Related scientists
Subrahmanyan ChandrasekharFred HoyleJohn Archibald WheelerEmmy NoetherChristian DopplerSaul PerlmutterMaarten SchmidtBrian Schmidt

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