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John C. Mather

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For other people with similar names, see John Mather.
John Cromwell Mather
John C. Mather (March 2015)
Born (1946-08-07) August 7, 1946 (age 77)
Roanoke, Virginia, USA
NationalityUnited States
Alma materSwarthmore College
University of California, Berkeley
Known forCosmic microwave background radiation studies
AwardsDannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics (1993)
Nobel Prize in Physics (2006)
Scientific career
FieldsAstrophysics, cosmology
InstitutionsNASA
University of Maryland
Doctoral advisorPaul L. Richards

John Cromwell Mather (born August 7, 1946, Roanoke, Virginia) is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE) with George Smoot.

This work helped cement the big-bang theory of the universe. According to the Nobel Prize committee, "the COBE-project can also be regarded as the starting point for cosmology as a precision science."[1]

Mather is a senior astrophysicist at the U.S. space agency's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Maryland and adjunct professor of physics at the University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences. In 2007, Mather was listed among Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World. In October, 2012, he was listed again by Time magazine in a special issue on New Space Discoveries as one of 25 most influential people in space.

Mather is also the project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a space telescope to be launched to L2 no earlier than 2018.

In 2014, Mather delivered a major address on the Webb Space Telescope at the second Starmus Festival in the Canary Islands.

Education and initial research

Part of a series on
Physical cosmology
Full-sky image derived from nine years' WMAP data
Early universe
Backgrounds
Expansion · Future
Components · Structure
Components
Structure
Experiments
Scientists
Subject history
  • 1964 Newton High School, Newton, New Jersey[2]
  • 1968 B.Sc. (Physics), Swarthmore College (Highest Honors)
  • 1974 Ph.D. (Physics), University of California, Berkeley
  • 1974-76 (NRC Postdoctoral Fellow), Columbia University Goddard Institute for Space Studies

    • Honors and awards

    Publications

    References

    1. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2006" (Press release). The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 3 October 2006. Retrieved 2006-10-05.
    2. ^ John C. Mather autobiography, Nobel Prize. Accessed June 29, 2008. "When I finished 8th grade, it was time to go to high school, and my parents decided to send me to Newton High School, where they thought we would get the best available education in our area."
    3. ^ University of Notre Dame. "Honorary Degrees". Retrieved 20 June 2011.

    External links

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