Baltimore astronomer Adam Riess, the lead author on the 1998 paper that first reported that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, will share in the $500,000 Peter Gruber Cosmology Prize for 2007.
The unrestricted cash award and gold medal are given annually to scientists for "theoretical, analytical, or conceptual discoveries leading to fundamental advances in the field," according to the foundation's Web site, where the selection was made public yesterday.
Riess holds dual appointments at the Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute.
FOR THE RECORD - The caption in Wednesday's editions for a photo of Johns Hopkins University astronomer Adam Riess incorrectly referred to his 1998 discovery as evidence for the existence of "dark matter." The evidence indicated the existence of "dark energy."
The Sun regrets the errors.
The prize is described by Hopkins as "one of the most prestigious prizes in cosmology" and by PhysicsWeb as "the world's only award for cosmology."
Whichever way you look at it, "it's quite a nice honor," said Riess, 37. "I'm very happy about it."
Cosmology is the study of the origins and evolution of the universe as a whole, whereas astronomy concentrates on celestial objects such as planets, stars and galaxies.
Last year, Riess and two co-discoverers shared the $1 million Shaw Prize, an international award for groundbreaking discoveries in astronomy, mathematics, life sciences and medicine.
He split the Shaw Prize with Brian P. Schmidt of Australian National University and Saul Perlmutter of the University of California, Berkeley.
Schmidt led the High-z Supernova Search team. Riess - then at the University of California, Berkeley - was a member and first author of the High-z group's 1998 paper in the journal Science. Also on that team was Space Telescope Science Institute astronomer Ronald Gilliland.
Perlmutter led the competing Supernova Cosmology Project, which shared in the discovery, but published second, in 1999. Institute astronomers Andrew Fruchter and Nino Panagia also were part of Perlmutter's team.
The two papers are among the most cited of the past decade in physics and astronomy.
The two groups have agreed to split the Gruber award in half, with all 51 team members on the two teams receiving shares.
But, Riess stressed, "It's not about the money. ... It gets people focused on the wrong thing."
At the time of the original discovery, Riess was a young astronomer analyzing the light from a collection of exploding stars called Type 1a supernovae. He was trying to calculate their distance from Earth and the speed at which they were receding with the expansion of the universe.
