Three Cosmologists Share Dirac Medal

On 8 August, to commemorate the birthday of Nobel Prize winner P. A. M. Dirac, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, presented the 2002 Dirac Medal and Prize to three cosmologists. The medal recognizes significant contributions to theoretical physics and mathematics.

The ICTP honored Alan Guth, Victor F. Weisskopf Professor of Physics and Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow at MIT, Andrei Linde, professor of physics at Stanford University, and Paul Steinhardt, Albert Einstein Professor of Science, who holds a joint appointment in the physics and astrophysical sciences departments at Princeton University, for “the development of the concept of inflation in cosmology.” The theory of inflation, introduced in the 1980s, has offered scientists a view of the early history of the universe. Although that history has not been firmly established, said the medal’s selection committee, “the idea of inflation has already had notable observational successes, and it has become the paradigm for fundamental studies in cosmology.”

Although others previously had noted the possibility of an exponential expansion of the early universe, it was Guth, said the committee, “who realized that inflation would solve some of the major problems confronting the Big Bang cosmology.” He and others recognized the difficulties with the original inflationary model. Those difficulties, added the committee, “were overcome with the introduction of ‘new’ inflation by Linde and Steinhardt (with Andreas Albrecht). Linde went on to propose other promising versions of inflationary theory, such as chaotic inflation. The greatest success of inflationary theory has been in accounting for the existence of inhomogeneities in the universe and predicting their spectrum, done by Guth (with So-Young Pi), Steinhardt (with James Bardeen and Michael Turner), as well as Stephen Hawking and Alexei Starobinsky.”

In addition to the medal, the three cosmologists each received $5000.