4 October 2011

Well Deserved Nobel Prize Goes To Adam Riess

Posted by Dan Satterfield

Want to understand why Adam Riess and two others deserved the Nobel in physics? Read this book!


Last week I was chatting with my wife and somehow the mention of Nobel prizes came up. I offhandedly said the Nobel Prize in Physics will go to a guy named Adam Riess, but he will probably split it with two others. Fast forward to today and my wife Marian is painting the bedroom of our home here in Oklahoma City, and listening to BBC Radio 2. The 8 PM news comes on and they announce the Nobel Prize in Physics goes to…Adam Riess, Saul Perlmutter and Brian Schmidt. (The BBC Website has an excellent story on it- click the image above to read it.)

This is Dan’s lesson on how to impress your wife! (That’ll never happen again!)

I’ve followed the story of the two teams that separately worked to measure the rate the universe was expanding for a few years now and there is a fantastic book that tells the story very well. Once you read it, you’ll say what I did: These folks deserve the Nobel Prize!

Today they got it, and mankind is richer for their work.