Adam Riess
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.031113
On this date in 1969, Nobel laureate Adam Riess was born in Washington, DC. Riess earned his PhD from Harvard and in his thesis collected measurements of 20 new Type Ia supernovae and developed a method to use such supernovae as accurate distance indicators. In 1998 he jointly led the study with Brian Schmidt that first reported that the universe’s rate of expansion is accelerating. An independent study by Saul Perlmutter that reached the same conclusion led to all three receiving the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. Riess currently works at Johns Hopkins University and leads a project to find the most distant supernovae yet seen. (Image credit: Wikipedia user Ariess; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation)
Date in History: 16 December 1969
