1. Brian Paul Schmidt was born on 24 February 1967 and is an American Australian astrophysicist at the Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory and Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
28 Facts About Brian Schmidt
1. 2.
Brian Schmidt was the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University from January 2016 to January 2024.
3.
Brian Schmidt is known for his research in using supernovae as cosmological probes.
4.
Brian Schmidt previously held a Federation Fellowship and a Laureate Fellowship from the Australian Research Council, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2012.
5.
Schmidt, an only child, was born in Missoula, Montana, where his father Dana C Schmidt was a fisheries biologist.
6.
Brian Schmidt attended Bartlett High School in Anchorage, Alaska, and graduated in 1985.
7.
Brian Schmidt graduated with a BS and BS from the University of Arizona in 1989.
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Brian Schmidt received his AM in 1992 and then PhD in 1993 from Harvard University.
9.
Brian Schmidt led the team from Australia and in 1998 in the HZT paper with first author Adam Riess the first evidence was presented that the universe's expansion rate is not decelerating; it is accelerating.
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The team's observations were contrary to the then-current models, which predicted that the expansion of the universe should be slowing down, and when the preliminary results emerged Brian Schmidt assumed it was an error and he spent the next six weeks trying to find the mistake.
11.
The discovery of the accelerating universe was named 'Breakthrough of the Year' by Science in 1998, and Brian Schmidt was jointly awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Riess and Perlmutter for their groundbreaking work.
12.
Brian Schmidt is currently leading the SkyMapper telescope Project and the associated Southern Sky Survey, which will encompass billions of individual objects, enabling the team to pick out the most unusual objects.
13.
Brian Schmidt is the chairman of the board of directors of Astronomy Australia Limited, and he serves on the management committee of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics.
14.
In July 2012 Brian Schmidt was given a three-year appointment to sit on the Questacon Advisory Council.
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On 24 June 2015 it was announced Brian Schmidt would replace Ian Young as the 12th Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University, to commence his tenure on 1 January 2016.
16.
Brian Schmidt has received the Australian Government's inaugural Malcolm McIntosh Prize for achievement in the Physical Sciences in 2000, Harvard University's Bok Prize in 2000, the Australian Academy of Science's Pawsey Medal Medal in 2001, and the Astronomical Society of India's Vainu Bappu Medal in 2002.
17.
Brian Schmidt was the Marc Aaronson Memorial Lecturer in 2005, the same year he received an ARC Federation Fellowship, and in 2006 he shared the Shaw Prize in Astronomy with Adam Riess and Saul Perlmutter.
18.
Brian Schmidt was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in the 2013 Australia Day Honours.
19.
Brian Schmidt was called "Australian of the Year" for 2011 by The Australian newspaper.
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Brian Schmidt is a Fellow and council member of the Australian Academy of Science, The United States National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society, and Foreign Member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences.
21.
Brian Schmidt was awarded the Dirac Medal of the University of New South Wales in 2012 and the Niels Bohr Institute Medal of Honour in 2015.
22.
Brian Schmidt was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2012; his certificate of election to the Royal Society reads:.
23.
Brian Schmidt is an internationally renowned researcher in cosmology and in the physics of supernovae and gamma ray bursts.
24.
Brian Schmidt was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2023.
25.
Brian Schmidt now holds dual citizenship of Australia and the United States.
26.
Brian Schmidt has quipped that "it's easier to sell your wine when you have a Nobel prize".
27.
In 2013, Brian Schmidt was appointed to join the board of the federal government's Australian Wine Research Institute.
28.
The Institute's chairman Peter Dawson commented that Brian Schmidt brings to the board "a unique combination of scientific excellence, wine industry knowledge and relevant board experience".