Adam Guy Riess (born December 16, 1969) is an American
astrophysicist and
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
and the
Space Telescope Science Institute
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), science operations and mission operations center for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and science operations center for th ...
. He is known for his research in using
supernovae
A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when a ...
as cosmological probes. Riess shared both the 2006
Shaw Prize in Astronomy
The Shaw Prize is an annual award presented by the Shaw Prize Foundation. Established in 2002 in Hong Kong, it honours "individuals who are currently active in their respective fields and who have recently achieved distinguished and signifi ...
and the
2011 Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics ( sv, Nobelpriset i fysik) is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the 1895 will of Alfred No ...
with
Saul Perlmutter
Saul Perlmutter (born September 22, 1959) is a U.S. astrophysicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of both the American Academy of Arts & Sciences ...
and
Brian P. Schmidt
Brian Paul Schmidt (born 24 February 1967) is the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU). He was previously a Distinguished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and astrophysicist at the University's Mo ...
for providing evidence that the
expansion of the universe is accelerating.
Family
Riess was born in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, one of three children. He grew up in
Warren, New Jersey
Warren Township is a township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. The township is a bedroom suburb of New York City in the much larger New York metropolitan area, located within the Raritan Valley region. As of the 2020 United State ...
, where his father (Naval engineer Michael Riess) owned a frozen-foods distribution company, Bistro International, and his mother (Doris Riess) worked as a clinical psychologist. Michael Riess (1931–2007) immigrated to the United States with his parents (journalist, war correspondent and author
Curt Martin Riess
Curt Martin Riess (June 21, 1902 – May 13, 1993) was a German journalist and writer.
Reiss was born of Jewish-German origins in Wurzburg, Germany, and later fled in 1933 to Paris, France not long after Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor in 1 ...
and Ilse Posnansky) from Germany on the ship
SS Europa (1928)
SS ''Europa'', later SS ''Liberté'', IMO 5607332, was a German ocean liner built for the Norddeutsche Lloyd line (NDL) to work the transatlantic sea route. She and her sister ship, , were the two most advanced, high-speed steam turbine ocean ...
in 1936. Adam Riess has two sisters –
Gail Saltz
Dr. Gail Saltz is an American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, columnist, and television Pundit (expert), commentator. Saltz is the author of several Self-help book, self-help and psychology books, including ''Anatomy of a Secret Life: The Psychology ...
, a psychiatrist, and Holly Hagerman, an artist. Riess married Nancy Joy Schondorf in 1998.
He is
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
.
Education
He attended
Watchung Hills Regional High School
Watchung Hills Regional High School is a regional comprehensive high school, comprehensive state school, public Secondary education in the United States, high school and school district serving students in portions of Somerset County, New Jerse ...
, graduating in the class of 1988. He also attended the prestigious New Jersey Governor's School in the Sciences in 1987. Riess then graduated from
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
in 1992 where he was a member of the
Phi Delta Theta
Phi Delta Theta (), commonly known as Phi Delt, is an international secret and social fraternity founded at Miami University in 1848 and headquartered in Oxford, Ohio. Phi Delta Theta, along with Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Chi form the Miami Triad ...
fraternity. He received his
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic
* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1996; it resulted in measurements of over twenty new
Type Ia supernovae
A Type Ia supernova (read: "type one-A") is a type of supernova that occurs in binary systems (two stars orbiting one another) in which one of the stars is a white dwarf. The other star can be anything from a giant star to an even smaller white ...
and a method to utilize Type Ia supernovae as accurate distance indicators by correcting for intervening dust and intrinsic inhomogeneities. Riess's PhD thesis was supervised by
Robert Kirshner
Robert P. Kirshner (born August 15, 1949) is an American astronomer, Chief Program Officer for Science for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Clownes Research Professor of Science at Harvard University. Kirshner has worked in several ...
and
William H. Press
William Henry Press (born May 23, 1948) is an astrophysicist, theoretical physicist, computer scientist, and computational biologist. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the ...
and won the
Robert J. Trumpler Award
The Robert J. Trumpler Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific is given annually to a recent recipient of the Ph.D degree whose thesis is judged particularly significant to astronomy.Miller Fellow The Miller Research Fellows program is the central program of the Adolph C. and Mary Sprague Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science on the University of California Berkeley campus. The program constitutes the support of Research Fellows - ...
at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
from 1996 through 1999, during which period his first seminal paper on the discovery of an accelerating universe was published.
[Messersmith, Julie]
"Nobel laureate Adam Riess named 22nd Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins"
''JHU Hub'', Baltimore, 8 July 2016. Retrieved on 13 July 2016. In 1999, he moved to the
Space Telescope Science Institute
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), science operations and mission operations center for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and science operations center for th ...
and took up his current position at
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
in 2006. He also sits on the selection committee for the Astronomy award, given under the auspices of the
Shaw Prize
The Shaw Prize is an annual award presented by the Shaw Prize Foundation. Established in 2002 in Hong Kong, it honours "individuals who are currently active in their respective fields and who have recently achieved distinguished and signifi ...
. In July 2016, Riess was named a
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...
for his accomplishments as an interdisciplinary researcher and excellence in teaching the next generation of scholars.
The Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships were established in 2013 by a gift from
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is an American businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner, co-founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P. He was Mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013, and was a ca ...
.
Riess jointly led the study with
Brian Schmidt
Brian Paul Schmidt (born 24 February 1967) is the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU). He was previously a Distinguished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and astrophysicist at the University's Mo ...
in 1998 for the
High-z Supernova Search Team which first reported evidence that the universe's expansion rate is now accelerating through monitoring of Type Ia supernovae. The team's observations were contrary to the current theory that the expansion of the universe was slowing down; instead, by monitoring the color shifts in the light from supernovae from Earth, they discovered that these billion-year old novae were still accelerating.
This result was also found nearly simultaneously by the
Supernova Cosmology Project
The Supernova Cosmology Project is one of two research teams that determined the likelihood of an accelerating universe and therefore a positive cosmological constant, using data from the redshift of Type Ia supernovae. The project is headed by S ...
, led by
Saul Perlmutter
Saul Perlmutter (born September 22, 1959) is a U.S. astrophysicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of both the American Academy of Arts & Sciences ...
.
The corroborating evidence between the two competing studies led to the acceptance of the
accelerating universe
Observations show that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, such that the velocity at which a distant galaxy recedes from the observer is continuously increasing with time. The accelerated expansion of the universe was discovered during ...
theory, and initiated new research to understand the nature of the universe, such as the existence of
dark energy
In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is an unknown form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. The first observational evidence for its existence came from measurements of supernovas, which showed that the univer ...
.
The discovery of the accelerating universe was named 'Breakthrough of the Year' by ''Science'' magazine in 1998, and Riess was jointly awarded the
2011 Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics ( sv, Nobelpriset i fysik) is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the 1895 will of Alfred No ...
along with Schmidt and Perlmutter for their groundbreaking work.
In the book ''
The 4 Percent Universe
''The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality'' is a nonfiction book by writer and professor Richard Panek and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on January 10, 2011.
In October 2011, the No ...
'', scientific journalist
Richard Panek
Richard Panek is an American popular science writer, columnist, and journalist who specializes in the topics of space, the universe, and gravity. He has published several books and has written articles for a number of news outlets and scientific ...
claims that Riess made improper use of the supernova data collected by the
Calán/Tololo Survey, publishing them prior to the authors and without their permission. However, coincident publication dates and acknowledgements in one of these publications contradict this claim.
Awards and honors
![Shaw2006astro](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Shaw2006astro.jpg)
Riess received the
Astronomical Society of the Pacific's
Robert J. Trumpler Award
The Robert J. Trumpler Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific is given annually to a recent recipient of the Ph.D degree whose thesis is judged particularly significant to astronomy.Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
's Bok Prize in 2001. He won the American Astronomical Society's
Helen B. Warner Prize
The Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy is awarded annually by the American Astronomical Society to a young astronomer (aged less than 36,
or within 8 years of the award of their PhD) for a significant contribution to observational or theoretical ...
in 2003 and the Raymond and Beverly
Sackler Prize The Sackler Prize can indicate any of the following three awards established by Raymond Sackler and his wife Beverly Sackler currently bestowed by the Tel Aviv University.
Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences
The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Int ...
in 2004 for the discovery of cosmic acceleration.
In 2006, he shared the $1 million
Shaw Prize
The Shaw Prize is an annual award presented by the Shaw Prize Foundation. Established in 2002 in Hong Kong, it honours "individuals who are currently active in their respective fields and who have recently achieved distinguished and signifi ...
in
Astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...
with
Saul Perlmutter
Saul Perlmutter (born September 22, 1959) is a U.S. astrophysicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of both the American Academy of Arts & Sciences ...
and
Brian P. Schmidt
Brian Paul Schmidt (born 24 February 1967) is the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU). He was previously a Distinguished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and astrophysicist at the University's Mo ...
for contributions to the discovery of the
acceleration of the universe.
Schmidt and all the members of the High-Z Team (as defined by the co-authors of Riess et al. 1998) shared the 2007
Gruber Cosmology Prize
The Gruber Prize in Cosmology, established in 2000, is one of three prestigious international awards worth US$500,000 made by the Gruber Foundation, a non-profit organization based at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Since 2001, the G ...
, a $500,000 award, with the Supernova Cosmology Project (the set defined by the co-authors of Perlmutter et al. 1999) for their discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe. Riess was the winner of MacArthur "Genius" Grant in 2008. He was also elected in 2009 to the National Academy of Sciences.
Along with Perlmutter and Schmidt, he was awarded the 2011
Nobel Prize in Physics
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
for his contributions to the discovery of the acceleration of the expansion of the universe.
Riess, along with
Brian P. Schmidt
Brian Paul Schmidt (born 24 February 1967) is the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU). He was previously a Distinguished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and astrophysicist at the University's Mo ...
, and the
High-Z Supernova Search Team shared in the 2015
Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics is one of the Breakthrough Prizes, awarded by the Breakthrough Prize Board. Initially named Fundamental Physics Prize, it was founded in July 2012 by Russia-born Israeli entrepreneur, venture capita ...
.
In 2012, Riess received the Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement
The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...
.
In 2020, Riess was made fellow of the
American Astronomical Society
The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...
.
Media appearances
Riess participated on the
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
radio quiz program ''
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!'' in 2011.
Publications
Riess has more than 87,000 citations in Google Scholar and an h-index of 99. His most cited work, "Observational evidence from supernovae for an accelerating universe and a cosmological constant," has been cited over 20,000 times. Riess has been among the top 1% most cited in the world for subject field and year of publication in the
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre.
Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corpora ...
Highly Cited Researchers reports for multiple years, including 2016 and 2020.
Google Scholar citations
Highly cited articles (more than 1900 citations)
* 1998 with V Filippenko, P Challis, A Clocchiatti, A Diercks, et al., ''Observational evidence from supernovae for an accelerating universe and a cosmological constant'', in: ''The Astronomical Journal''. Vol. 116, nº 3; 1009.
* 2009 with KN Abazajian, JK Adelman-McCarthy, MA Agüeros, SS Allam, CA Prieto, et al., ''The seventh data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey'', in: ''The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series''. Vol. 182, nº 2; 543.
* 2004 with LG Strolger, J Tonry, S Casertano, HC Ferguson, B Mobasher, et al., ''Type Ia supernova discoveries at z> 1 from the Hubble Space Telescope: Evidence for past deceleration and constraints on dark energy evolution'', in: ''The Astrophysical Journal''. Vol. 607, nº 2; 665.
* 2007 with JK Adelman-McCarthy, MA Agüeros, SS Allam, KSJ Anderson, et al., ''The fifth data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey'', in: ''The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series''. Vol. 172, nº 2; 634.
* 2003 with JL Tonry, BP Schmidt, B Barris, P Candia, P Challis, A Clocchiatti, AL Coil, et al., ''Cosmological results from high-z supernovae'', in: ''The Astrophysical Journal''. Vol. 594, nº 1; 1.
* 2007 with LG Strolger, S Casertano, HC Ferguson, B Mobasher, B Gold, et al., ''New Hubble space telescope discoveries of type Ia supernovae at z≥ 1: narrowing constraints on the early behavior of dark energy'', in: ''The Astrophysical Journal''. Vol. 659, nº 1; 98.
* 1998 with BP Schmidt, NB Suntzeff, MM Phillips, RA Schommer, A Clocchiatti, et al., ''The high-Z supernova search: measuring cosmic deceleration and global curvature of the universe using type Ia supernovae'', in: ''The Astrophysical Journal''. Vol. 507, nº 1; 46.
See also
*
Cosmological constant
In cosmology, the cosmological constant (usually denoted by the Greek capital letter lambda: ), alternatively called Einstein's cosmological constant,
is the constant coefficient of a term that Albert Einstein temporarily added to his field equ ...
*
Dark energy
In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is an unknown form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. The first observational evidence for its existence came from measurements of supernovas, which showed that the univer ...
References
External links
Dark Energy Co-Discoverer Adam Riess Shares Shaw Prize in Astronomy for 2006*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riess, Adam
1969 births
Living people
Nobel laureates in Physics
American Nobel laureates
Jewish astronomers
American cosmologists
Johns Hopkins University faculty
University of California, Berkeley faculty
Harvard University alumni
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
MacArthur Fellows
Jewish American scientists
Jewish physicists
American people of German descent
American people of German-Jewish descent
People from Warren Township, New Jersey
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Watchung Hills Regional High School alumni
21st-century American astronomers
20th-century American astronomers
MIT Department of Physics alumni
Fellows of the American Astronomical Society
Albert Einstein Medal recipients
Fellows of the American Physical Society