This is a list of people who have made noteworthy contributions to cosmology (the study of the history and large-scale structure of the universe) and their cosmological achievements

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* Tom Abel (1970–) studied primordial star formation *

Roberto Abraham Roberto Abraham, FRSC (born 12 Apr 1965, Manila, Philippines) is a Canadian astronomer and is Professor of Astronomy at the University of Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Education Abraham received a Bachelor of Science fro ...

(1965–) studied the shapes of early galaxies * Andreas Albrecht studied the formation of the early universe, cosmic structure, and dark energy * Hannes Alfvén (1908–1995) theorized that galactic magnetic fields could be generated by plasma currents * Ralph A. Alpher (1921–2007) argued that observed proportions of hydrogen and helium in the universe could be explained by the big bang model, predicted cosmic background radiation *

Aristarchus of Samos Aristarchus of Samos (; grc-gre, Ἀρίσταρχος ὁ Σάμιος, ''Aristarkhos ho Samios''; ) was an ancient Greek astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or ...

(310–230 BC) early proponent of heliocentrism * Aristotle (circa 384–322 BC) posited a geocentric cosmology that was widely accepted for many centuries * Aryabhata (476–550) described a geocentric model with slow and fast epicycles

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* Ja'far ibn Muhammad Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi (787–886) conveyed Aristotle's theories from Persia to Europe *

James M. Bardeen James Maxwell Bardeen (May 9, 1939 – June 20, 2022) was an American physicist, well known for his work in general relativity, particularly his role in formulating the laws of black hole mechanics. He also discovered the Bardeen vacuum, an e ...

(1939–2022) studied the mathematics of black holes and of vacua under general relativity * John D. Barrow (1952–2020) popularized the anthropic cosmological principle * Charles L. Bennett (1956–) studied the large-scale structure of the universe by mapping irregularities in microwave background radiation *

Orfeu Bertolami Orfeu Bertolami ( São Paulo, Brazil, 1959) is a theoretical physicist who works in problems of astrophysics, cosmology, general relativity and quantum gravity. He worked at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, Portugal from 1991 to 2010. ...

(1959–) studied the cosmological constant, inflation, dark energy-dark matter unification and interaction, alternative gravity theories * Somnath Bharadwaj (1964–) studied large-scale structure formation *

James Binney James Jeffrey Binney, FRS, FInstP (born 12 April 1950) is a British astrophysicist. He is a professor of physics at the University of Oxford and former head of the Sub-Department of Theoretical Physics as well as an Emeritus Fellow of Merto ...

(1950–) studied galactic dynamics and supernova disruption of galactic gasses *

Martin Bojowald Martin Bojowald (born 18 February 1973 in Jülich) is a German physicist who now works on the faculty of the Penn State Physics Department, where he is a member of the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos. Prior to joining Penn State he spent ...

(1973–) studied loop quantum gravity and established loop quantum cosmology * Hermann Bondi (1919–2005) developed the steady-state model * Mustapha Ishak Boushaki (1967–) physicist researcher on Cosmology * Tycho Brahe (1546–1601) promoted a geo-heliocentric system of epicycles *

Robert Brandenberger Robert H. Brandenberger (born 1956 in Bern) is a Swiss-Canadian theoretical cosmologist and a professor of physics at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Biography Brandenberger completed his undergraduate degree at ETH Zurich, in Swi ...

(1956–) formulated the theory of string gas cosmology, with colleague Cumrun Vafa, and developed cosmological perturbation theory

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* Bernard J. Carr (1949–) promoted the anthropic principle, studied primordial black holes * Sean M. Carroll (1966–) researched dark energy, general relativity, and spontaneous inflation * Gennady V. Chibisov (1946–2008) origin of cosmological density perturbations from quantum fluctuations *

Peter Coles Peter Coles (born 1963) is a theoretical cosmologist at Maynooth University. He studies the large scale structure of our Universe. He studied for his PhD in 1985-1988, subsequently becoming a postdoctoral researcher at Sussex and Queen Mary, su ...

(1963–) modeled galactic clustering and authored several cosmology books *

C. B. Collins Christopher Barry Collins is a cosmologist who has written many papers with Stephen Hawking. He is a professor emeritus of applied mathematics at the University of Waterloo. Collins earned his Ph.D. in 1972 from the University of Cambridge under ...

used the anthropic principle to solve the flatness problem * Asantha Cooray (1973–) studied dark energy, halo models of large structure, and cosmic microwave radiation * Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) formulated a heliocentric cosmology

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* Paul Davies (1946–) developed a vacuum model that explains microwave background fluctuation, studies time's arrow, and has written many popular-press books * Marc Davis (1947–) was lead astronomer of a survey of 50,000 high-redshift galaxies * Avishai Dekel (1951–) studied galaxy formation and large scale structure in dark matter-dark energy dominated universes *

Robert H. Dicke Robert Henry Dicke (; May 6, 1916 – March 4, 1997) was an American astronomer and physicist who made important contributions to the fields of astrophysics, atomic physics, physical cosmology, cosmology and gravity. He was the Albert Einstein ...

(1916–1997) measured background radiation, used an early version of the anthropic principle to relate the gravitational constant to the age of the universe * Mike J. Disney (1937–) discovered low surface brightness galaxies

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* George Efstathiou (Cosmologist) (1955–) pioneering computer simulations, observations of galaxy clustering and studies of the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background * Jürgen Ehlers (1929–2008) described gravitational lensing and studied the mathematical implications of an isotropic microwave background *

Jaan Einasto Jaan Einasto (born 23 February 1929) is an Estonian astrophysicist and one of the discoverers of the large-scale structure of the Universe. Born Jaan Eisenschmidt in Tartu, the name "Einasto" is an anagram of "Estonia" (it was chosen by his p ...

(1929–) studied structure in the large-scale distribution of superclusters of galaxies, early proponent of dark matter * Albert Einstein (1879–1955) introduced general relativity and the cosmological constant *

George F. R. Ellis George Francis Rayner Ellis, FRS, Hon. FRSSAf (born 11 August 1939), is the emeritus distinguished professor of complex systems in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He co-auth ...

(1939–) theorized a cylindrical steady-state universe with a naked singularity as recycling mechanism * Richard S. Ellis (1950–) used gravitational lensing and high-redshift supernovae to study the origin of galaxies, large scale structure, and dark matter

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Sandra M. Faber Sandra Moore Faber (born December 28, 1944) is an American astrophysicist known for her research on the evolution of galaxies. She is the University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and works a ...

(1944–) discovered the Great Attractor, a supercluster-scale gravitational anomaly; co-inventor of the theory of cold dark matter * Hume A. Feldman (1953–) studies cosmological perturbations and the statistical and dynamical properties of the large scale structure of the universe *

Pedro G. Ferreira Pedro Gil Ferreira (born 18 March 1968) is a Portuguese astrophysicist and author. As of 2016 he is Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford,Carlos S. Frenk (1951–) studied cosmic structure formation *

Alexander Friedmann Alexander Alexandrovich Friedmann (also spelled Friedman or Fridman ; russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Фри́дман) (June 16 .S. 4 1888 – September 16, 1925) was a Russian and Soviet physicist and mathematician ...

(1888–1925) discovered the expanding-universe solution to general relativity

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* George Gamow (1904–1968) argued that observed proportions of hydrogen and helium in the universe could be explained by the big bang model, modeled the mass and radius of primordial galaxies *

Margaret J. Geller Margaret J. Geller (born December 8, 1947) is an American astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. Her work has included pioneering maps of the nearby universe, studies of the relationship between galaxies and their ...

(1947–) discovered the Great Wall, a superstructure-scale filament of galaxies * Thomas Gold (1920–2004) proposed the steady-state theory *

Gerson Goldhaber Gerson Goldhaber (February 20, 1924 – July 19, 2010) was a German-born American particle physicist and astrophysicist. He was one of the discoverers of the J/ψ meson which confirmed the existence of the charm quark. He worked at Lawrence Be ...

(1924–2010) used supernova observations to measure the energy density of the universe * J. Richard Gott (1947–) proposed the use of cosmic strings for time travel * Alan Guth (1947–) explained the isotropy of the universe by theorizing a phase of exponential inflation soon after the big bang

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* Stephen W. Hawking (1942–2018) described singularities in general relativity and developed singularity-free models of the big bang; predicted primordial black holes * Charles W. Hellaby described models of general relativity with nonconstant metric signature *

Michał Heller Michał Kazimierz Heller (born 12 March 1936 in Tarnów) is a Polish professor of philosophy at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Kraków, Poland, and an adjunct member of the Vatican Observatory staff. He also serves as a lectur ...

(1936–) researched noncommutative approaches to quantum gravity * Robert C. Herman (1914–1997) predicted the background radiation temperature *

Lars Hernquist Lars Hernquist (14 December 1954) is a theoretical astrophysicist and Mallinckrodt Professor of Astrophysics at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. He is best known for his research on dynamical processes in cosmology and galax ...

(1954–) studied galaxy formation and evolution * Chris Hirata (1982–) researched weak gravitational lensing * Honorius Augustodunensis (c.1080−1151) wrote a popular encyclopedia of cosmology, geography, and world history *

Hanns Hörbiger Johannes "Hanns" Evangelist Hörbiger (29 November 1860, in Atzgersdorf – 11 October 1931, in Mauer), better known as Hanns Hörbiger, was an Austrian engineer from Vienna with roots in Tyrol. He took part in the construction of the Budapest ...

(1860–1931) formulated a pseudoscientific theory of ice as the basic substance of all cosmic processes * Fred Hoyle (1915–2001) promoted the steady state theory, used the anthropic principle to explain the energy levels of carbon nuclei *

Edwin P. Hubble Edwin Powell Hubble (November 20, 1889 – September 28, 1953) was an American astronomer. He played a crucial role in establishing the fields of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology. Hubble proved that many objects previous ...

(1889–1953) demonstrated the existence of other galaxies and confirmed the relation between redshift and distance * John P. Huchra (1948–2010) discovered the Great Wall, a superstructure-scale filament of galaxies

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* Mustapha Ishak Boushaki (1967–) physicist researcher on Cosmology *

Jamal Nazrul Islam Jamal Nazrul Islam (24 February 1939 – 16 March 2013) was a Bangladeshi mathematical physicist and cosmologist. He was a professor at University of Chittagong, served as a member of the advisory board at Shahjalal University of Science and Te ...

(1939–2013) published seven books on Cosmology

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Ronald Kantowski Ronald Kantowski (18 December 1939) is a theoretical cosmologist, well known in the field of general relativity as the author, together with Rainer K. Sachs, of the Kantowski–Sachs dust solutions to the Einstein field equation. These are a widel ...

(1939–) discovered spatially homogeneous but anisotropic solutions to general relativity *

Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws ...

(1571–1630) pioneered heliocentrism, discovered elliptical planetary motion, attempted to explain heavenly motions through physical causes * Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov (1919–2021) conjectured an oscillatory model with an essential singularity for the evolution of the universe * Tom W. B. Kibble (1932–2016) introduced the concept of cosmic strings *

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 ...

(1949–) discovered the Boötes void, a large region sparsely populated with galaxies, and wrote a popular book on cosmology *

Edward Kolb Edward W. Kolb, known as Rocky Kolb, (born October 2, 1951) is a cosmologist and a professor at the University of Chicago as well as the dean of Physical Sciences. He has worked on many aspects of the Big Bang cosmology, including baryogenesis, n ...

(1951–) studied big bang cosmology including the emergence of baryons and dark matter, and wrote a popular textbook on cosmology *

Lawrence M. Krauss Lawrence Maxwell Krauss (born May 27, 1954) is an American theoretical physicist and cosmologist who previously taught at Arizona State University, Yale University, and Case Western Reserve University. He founded ASU's Origins Project, now cal ...

(1954–) author of popular science books on cosmology including ''A Universe from Nothing''

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* Ofer Lahav (1959–) studied dark matter and dark energy *

Tod R. Lauer Tod R. Lauer (born 1957) is an American astronomer on the research staff of the NSF NOIRLab. He was a member of the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field and Planetary Camera team, and is a founding member of the Nuker Team. His research interests ...

(1957–) catalogued massive black holes at galaxy centers and correlated their mass with other properties of the galaxies' structures * Georges Henri Lemaître (1894–1966) proposed the big bang theory and the distance-redshift relation * Janna Levin (1967–) seeks evidence for a bounded universe of nontrivial topology * Andrew R. Liddle (1965–) studied inflationary models, wrote two books on inflation and primordial inhomogeneities * Evgeny M. Lifshitz (1915–1985) conjectured an oscillatory model with an essential singularity for the evolution of the universe *

Andrei Linde Andrei Dmitriyevich Linde (russian: Андре́й Дми́триевич Ли́нде; born March 2, 1948) is a Russian-American theoretical physicist and the Harald Trap Friis Professor of Physics at Stanford University. Linde is one of the ...

(1948–) pioneered inflationary models and proposed eternal chaotic inflation of universes from the false vacuum * Abraham Loeb (1962–) researched primordial stars, primordial black holes, quasars, reionization, gravitational lensing, and gamma-ray bursts *

Jean-Pierre Luminet Jean-Pierre Luminet (born 3 June 1951) is a French astrophysicist, specializing in black holes and cosmology. He is an emeritus research director at the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique). Luminet is a member of the Laboratoir ...

(1951–) studied black holes and the topology of the Universe * David H. Lyth (1940–) studied particle cosmology, wrote two books on inflation and primordial inhomogeneities

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João Magueijo João Magueijo (born 1967) is a Portuguese cosmologist and professor in theoretical physics at Imperial College London. He is a pioneer of the varying speed of light (VSL) theory. Education and career João Magueijo studied physics at the Uni ...

(1967–) proposed much faster speeds of light in the young universe as an alternative explanation to inflation for its homogeneity *

Richard Massey Richard Massey (born 14 October 1977) is a physicist currently working as Royal Society Research Fellow in the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University. Previously he was a senior research fellow in astrophysics at the California ...

(1977–) mapped dark matter in the universe *

Charles W. Misner Charles W. Misner (; born June 13, 1932) is an American physicist and one of the authors of ''Gravitation''. His specialties include general relativity and cosmology. His work has also provided early foundations for studies of quantum gravity an ...

(1932–) studied solutions to general relativity including the mixmaster universe and Misner space, wrote influential text on gravitation * John Moffat (1932–) proposed much faster speeds of light in the young universe, developed antisymmetric theories of gravity * Lauro Moscardini (1961–) modeled galaxy clustering in the early universe

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* Jayant Narlikar (1938–) promoted steady state theories * Isaac Newton (1642–1727) formulated the

law of universal gravitation Newton's law of universal gravitation is usually stated as that every particle attracts every other particle in the universe with a force that is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distanc ...

and supported the heliocentric model

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György Paál György Paál (Budapest, 1934 – Budapest, 1992) was a Hungarian astronomer and cosmologist. Work In the late 1950s Paál studied the quasar and galaxy cluster distributions. In 1970 from redshift quantization he came up with the idea that t ...

(1934–1992) in the late 1950s studied the quasar and galaxy cluster distributions, in 1970 from redshift quantization came up with the idea that the Universe might have nontrivial topological structure *

Thanu Padmanabhan Thanu Padmanabhan (10 March 1957 – 17 September 2021) was an Indian theoretical physicist and cosmologist whose research spanned a wide variety of topics in gravitation, structure formation in the universe and quantum gravity. He published n ...

(1957–2021) studied quantum gravity and quantum cosmology *

Leonard Parker Leonard Emanuel Parker (born Leonard Pearlman in 1938 in Brooklyn, New York) is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Physics and a former Director of the Center for Gravitation and Cosmology at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. During the ...

(1938–) established the study of quantum field theory within general relativity * P. James E. Peebles (1935–) predicted cosmic background radiation, contributed to structure theory, developed models that avoid dark matter *

Roger Penrose Sir Roger Penrose (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, philosopher of science and Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, an emeritus fello ...

(1931–) linked singularities to gravitational collapse, conjectured the nonexistence of naked singularities, and used gravitational entropy to explain homogeneity * Arno Penzias (1933–) was the first to observe the cosmic background radiation * Saul Perlmutter (1959–) used supernova observations to measure the expansion of the universe *

Mark M. Phillips Mark M. Phillips (born March 31, 1951) is an American astronomer who works on the observational studies of all classes of supernovae. He has worked on SN 1986G, SN 1987A, the Calán/Tololo Supernova Survey, the High-Z Supernova Search Team, and ...

(1951–) used supernova observations to discover acceleration in the expansion of the universe, calibrated the supernova distance scale *

Joel Primack Joel R. Primack (born July 14, 1945) is a professor of physics and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz and is a member of the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics. Primack received his A.B. from Princeton University in ...

(1945–) co-invented the theory of cold dark matter * Ptolemy (90–168) wrote the only surviving ancient text on astronomy, conjectured a model of the universe as a set of nested spheres with epicycles

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Ali Qushji Ala al-Dīn Ali ibn Muhammed (1403 – 16 December 1474), known as Ali Qushji (Ottoman Turkish : علی قوشچی, ''kuşçu'' – falconer in Turkish; Latin: ''Ali Kushgii'') was a Timurid theologian, jurist, astronomer, mathematician a ...

(1403–1474) challenged Aristotelian physics, in particular presenting empirical evidence against a stationary Earth, and may have influenced Copernicus

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* Lisa Randall (1962-) contributed to Randall–Sundrum models, which describe the world in terms of a

warped geometry In mathematics and physics, in particular differential geometry and general relativity, a warped geometry is a Riemannian or Lorentzian manifold whose metric tensor can be written in form :ds^2 = g_(y) \, dy^a \, dy^b + f(y) g_(x) \, dx^i \, dx^ ...

higher-dimensional universe * Martin Rees (1942–) proposed that quasars are powered by black holes, disproved steady state by studying distribution of quasars * Yoel Rephaeli used the distortion of the cosmic background by high-energy electrons to infer the existence of galaxy clusters * Adam Riess (1969–) found evidence in supernova data that the expansion of the universe is accelerating and confirming dark energy models * Wolfgang Rindler (1924–2019) coined the phrase "event horizon", Rindler Coordinates, and popularized the use of spinors (with Roger Penrose) *

Howard P. Robertson Howard Percy "Bob" Robertson (January 27, 1903 – August 26, 1961) was an American mathematician and physicist known for contributions related to physical cosmology and the uncertainty principle. He was Professor of Mathematical Physics at the C ...

(1903–1961) solved the two-body problem in an approximation to general relativity, developed the standard model of general relativity * Vera Rubin (1928–2016) discovered discrepancies in galactic rotation rates leading to the theory of dark matter

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Rainer K. Sachs Rainer Kurt "Ray" Sachs (born June 13, 1932) is a German-American mathematical physicist, with interests in general relativistic cosmology and astrophysics, as well as a computational radiation biologist. He is professor emeritus of Mathematics an ...

(1932–) discovered gravitationally induced redshifts in the cosmic background radiation *

Carl Sagan Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on ext ...

(1934–1996) * Andrei Sakharov (1921–1989) invented the theory of twins, CPT-symmetric universes * Allan Sandage (1936–2010) set the cosmological distance scale and accurately estimated the speed of expansion of the universe *

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 ...

(1967–) used supernova data to measure the acceleration in the expansion of the universe * David N. Schramm (1945–1997) was an expert on big bang theory and an early proponent of dark matter *

Dennis W. Sciama Dennis William Siahou Sciama, (; 18 November 1926 – 18/19 December 1999) was a British physicist who, through his own work and that of his students, played a major role in developing British physics after the Second World War. He was the PhD ...

(1926–1999) studied many aspects of cosmology and supervised many other leading cosmologists *

Irving Segal Irving Ezra Segal (1918–1998) was an American mathematician known for work on theoretical quantum mechanics. He shares credit for what is often referred to as the Segal–Shale–Weil representation. Early in his career Segal became known for h ...

(1918–1998) created chronometric cosmology with alternative explanation of redshift in spectra of distant sources *

Seleucus of Seleucia Seleucus of Seleucia ( el, Σέλευκος ''Seleukos''; born c. 190 BC; fl. c. 150 BC) was a Hellenistic astronomer and philosopher. Coming from Seleucia on the Tigris, Mesopotamia, the capital of the Seleucid Empire, or, alternatively, Seleukia ...

(c.190–c.150 BC) used tidal observations to support a heliocentric model *

Roman Ulrich Sexl Roman Ulrich Sexl (19 October 1939 – 10 July 1986) was one of the leading Austrian theoretical physicists. He is famous for his textbooks on Special relativity. Life His most cited work is "On the gravitational field of a massless particle" to ...

(1939–1986) developed an ether-based theory of absolute simultaneity that is mathematically equivalent to special relativity * Al-Sijzi (c. 945–1020) invented an astrolabe based on the Earth's rotation *

Joseph Silk Joseph Ivor Silk FRS (born 3 December 1942) is a British-American astrophysicist. He was the Savilian Chair of Astronomy at the University of Oxford from 1999 to September 2011. He is an Emeritus Fellow of New College, Oxford and a Fellow ...

(1942–) explained the homogeneity of the early universe using photon diffusion damping * Willem de Sitter (1872–1934) developed a theory of dark matter with Einstein, found an expanding matterless solution to general relativity * Vesto Slipher (1875–1969) performed the first measurements of radial velocities for galaxies, providing the empirical basis for the expansion of the universe * Lee Smolin (1955–) studied quantum gravity, popularized a theory of cosmological natural selection *

George F. Smoot George Fitzgerald Smoot III (born February 20, 1945) is an American astrophysics, astrophysicist, cosmology, cosmologist, Nobel laureate, and the 2nd contestant to win the $1 million prize on ''Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? (U.S. game show ...

(1945–) used Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite to measure the temperature and anisotropy of the early universe * David N. Spergel (1961–) used Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe satellite to measure the temperature and anisotropy of the early universe * Paul Steinhardt (1952–) pioneered inflationary cosmology, introduced first example of eternal inflation, introduced quintessential dark energy, introduced the concept of strongly self-interacting dark matter, studied brane cosmology and cyclic models of the universe *

Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi ʿAbd al-Rahman al-Sufi ( fa, عبدالرحمن صوفی; December 7, 903 – May 25, 986) was an iranianRobert Harry van Gent. Biography of al-Sūfī'. "The Persian astronomer Abū al-Husayn ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn ‘Umar al-Sūfī was born in ...

(903–986) wrote the ''Book of Fixed Stars'', which lists over forty constellations and the stars within them *

Nicholas B. Suntzeff Nicholas B. Suntzeff (born November 22, 1952, San Francisco) is an American University Distinguished Professor and holds the Mitchell/Heep/ Munnerlyn Chair of Observational Astronomy in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Texas A&M Universit ...

(1952–) used supernova observations to discover acceleration in the expansion of the universe, calibrated the supernova distance scale * Rashid Sunyaev (1943–) developed a theory of density fluctuations in the early universe, described how to use cosmic background distortion to observe large-scale density fluctuations *

Alex Szalay Alex Szalay is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of physics and astronomy and computer science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences and Whiting School of Engineering.Brooks, Kell"Johns Hopkins names four new Bloomberg D ...

(1949–) was working on structure formation in a neutrino-dominated universe, biased galaxy formation in a cold dark matter dominated universe and computing the power spectrum in hot, cold and warm dark matter dominated universes

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* Max Tegmark (1967–) determined the parameters of the lambda-cold dark matter model using Sloan Survey data, studied mathematical models of multiverses * Trinh Xuan Thuan (1948–) researched galaxy formation and evolution *

William G. Tifft William G. Tifft was an astronomer at the University of Arizona. His main interests were in galaxies, superclusters and redshift quantization. He was influential in the development of the first redshift surveys, and was an early proponent of crew ...

theorized that galactic redshifts are quantized * Beatrice Tinsley (1941–1981) researched galactic evolution, the creation of lightweight elements, and accelerated expansion of the universe *

Frank J. Tipler Frank Jennings Tipler (born February 1, 1947) is an American mathematical physicist and cosmologist, holding a joint appointment in the Departments of Mathematics and Physics at Tulane University. Tipler has written books and papers on the Omeg ...

(1947–) proved that time travel requires singularities, promoted the anthropic principle *

Richard C. Tolman Richard Chace Tolman (March 4, 1881 – September 5, 1948) was an American mathematical physicist and physical chemist who made many contributions to statistical mechanics. He also made important contributions to theoretical cosmology in t ...

(1881–1948) showed that the cosmic background keeps a black-body profile as the universe expands *

Mark Trodden Mark Trodden (born 1968) is a theoretical cosmologist and particle physicist. He is the Fay R. and Eugene L. Langberg Professor of Physics and Co-Director of the Center for Particle Cosmology at the University of Pennsylvania. Education and car ...

(1968–) studied cosmological implications of topological defects in field theories *

Michael S. Turner Michael S. Turner (born July 29, 1949) is an American theoretical cosmologist who coined the term ''dark energy'' in 1998. He is the Rauner Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Chicago, having previously serv ...

(1949–) coined the term ''dark energy'' * Neil Turok (1958–) predicted correlations between polarization and temperature anisotropy in the cosmic background, explained the big bang as a brane collision *

Henry Tye Sze-Hoi Henry Tye (; born 1947 in Shanghai, China) is a Chinese-American cosmologist and theoretical physicist most notable for proposing that relative brane motion could cause cosmic inflation as well as his work on superstring theory, brane cosm ...

(1947–) proposed brane-antibrane interactions as a cause of inflation

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* Alexander Vilenkin (1949–) showed that eternal inflation is generic, studied cosmic strings, theorized the creation of the universe from quantum fluctuations

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Robert M. Wald The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

(1947–) wrote a popular textbook on general relativity, studied the thermodynamics of black holes and created an axiomatic formulation of quantum field theory in curved spacetime. * Arthur Geoffrey Walker (1909–2001) developed the standard model of general relativity and studied the mathematics of relativistic reference frames *

David Wands David Wands is Professor of Cosmology at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, in the University of Portsmouth. He was educated at Dr Challoner's Grammar School, Amersham, and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he read Natura ...

studied inflation, superstrings, and density perturbations in the early universe *

Yun Wang Yun Wang (born 1964) is a poet and cosmologist. She is originally from Gaoping, Guizhou, Gaoping, a small town near Zunyi, in Guizhou Province, China. Professional work in astrophysics Yun Wang received a bachelor's degree in physics from Tsing ...

(1964–) uses supernova and galactic redshift data to probe dark energy * Jeffrey Weeks (1956–) used cosmic background patterns to determine the topology of the universe * Simon D. White (1951–) studied galaxy formation in the lambda-cold dark matter model *

David Todd Wilkinson David Todd Wilkinson (13 May 1935 – 5 September 2002) was an American cosmologist, specializing in the study of the cosmic microwave background radiation ( CMB) left over from the Big Bang. Education He was born in Hillsdale, Michigan, an ...

(1935–2002) used satellite probes to measure the cosmic background radiation *

Edward L. Wright Edward L. (Ned) Wright (born August 25, 1947 in Washington, D.C.) is an American astrophysicist and cosmologist, well known for his achievements in the COBE, WISE, and WMAP projects and as a strong Big Bang proponent in web tutorials on cosmol ...

(1947–) promoted big bang theories, studied the effect of dust absorption on measurements of the cosmic background

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* Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich (1914–1987) used accretion disks of massive black holes to explain quasars, predicted Compton scattering of the cosmic background * Fritz Zwicky (1898–1974) along with Walter Baade coined the term "supernova", contributions in understanding neutron stars, supernovae as standard candles, gravitational lensing, and dark matter.

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See also