The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences today (Tuesday, Oct. 3) announced that the Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to George F. Smoot, who has a dual appointment with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the UC Berkeley physics department, and John C. Mather of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, who earned his doctorate in physics at UC Berkeley, for their landmark research on the Big Bang theory and the origins of galaxies and stars.

Per Carlson, chairman of the Nobel committee for physics, called the scientists’ findings “one of the greatest discoveries of the century. I would call it the greatest.”

Smoot, 61, has been an astrophysicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which is managed by the University of California, since 1974 and a UC Berkeley physics professor since 1994. Mather, 60, a senior astrophysicist in the Observational Cosmology Laboratory at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland near Washington, DC, received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1974. Smoot and Mather led a group of about 100 scientists in their prize-winning experiments.

“My heartfelt congratulations go to Professor Smoot and UC alum John Mather for this incredible recognition of their superb research that supports the Big Bang theory,” said UC President Robert C. Dynes. “The Nobel Prize recognizes groundbreaking research from my fellow physicists that expands our knowledge and understanding of the world and beyond, and dramatically illustrates the creativity, collaboration and innovation that are hallmarks of a great research institution such as the University of California.”

Dynes also offered congratulations to Stanford University professor Andrew Fire, who shared in the 2006 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, which was announced Monday (Oct. 2). Fire, 47, received his undergraduate degree in mathematics from UC Berkeley in 1978.

With today’s awarding of the Nobel Prize to Smoot, 50 researchers affiliated with the University of California have been awarded Nobel Prizes. This is the 15th time UC faculty have won the prize in physics.

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Press release from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on its latest Nobel laureate:
www.lbl.gov/Publications/Nobel/

UC Berkeley’s press release on Smoot’s prize:
www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/10/03_nobelph.shtml

A complete list of the University of California’s Nobel laureates:
www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/factsheets/nobellaur.pdf