Laureates

Johns Hopkins University

2018 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

For detailed maps of the early universe that greatly improved our knowledge of the evolution of the cosmos and the fluctuations that seeded the formation of galaxies.

Comments

I am deeply grateful to my family for their love and support: my parents, my wife, Renée, our sons Ethan and Andrew, his wife, Emily, our grandson Shimon. They are the center of my universe. I have had many mentors over the years, including Vera Rubin, Elske Smith, Bill Erickson, Mike A’Hearn, Bernie Burke, Rai Weiss, Mike Hauser, John Mather, and others. I am indebted to them all for their patience and generosity with their time and attention. I have been lucky to have so many brilliant, wonderful colleagues, and I have learned enormously from them. It was a privilege to unveil mysteries of the universe together with my WMAP colleagues. Their expertise and friendship made our WMAP research tractable and fun. WMAP was a complex space mission that required considerable dedication on the part of managers, engineers, technicians, and many others. I especially thank Rich Day, Liz Citron, Clifton Jackson, and Mike Bay. Finally, I can’t sufficiently thank the members of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, not only for this great honor, but also for their critically important dedication to science itself as a source of human inspiration and advancement.