Michele Limon is an Italian research scientist at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. Limon studied physics at the Università degli Studi di Milano in Milan, Italy and completed his post-doctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been conducting research for more than 30 years and has experience in the design of ground, balloon and space-based instrumentation. His academic specialties include Astrophysics, Cosmology, Instrumentation Development, and Cryogenics. As a research scientist at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

from 1996 to 2001, Limon worked on the

Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), originally known as the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP and Explorer 80), was a NASA spacecraft operating from 2001 to 2010 which measured temperature differences across the sky in the cosmic mic ...

(WMAP) project with NASA. WMAP was a NASA Explorer mission that launched June 2001 to make fundamental measurements of cosmology-the study of the properties of the universe as a whole. WMAP was extremely successful, producing the new Standard Model of Cosmology. Limon continued working on WMAP at

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...

from 2001 to 2008. Limon and the WMAP team received the 2012 Gruber Yale Cosmology Prize and 2018

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 ...

for their contributions to modern cosmology. In 2008, Limon moved to Columbia University as a research scientist to build the E and B Experiment (EBEX), a balloon-borne microwave telescope designed to measure the polarization of the

Cosmic Microwave Background In Big Bang cosmology the cosmic microwave background (CMB, CMBR) is electromagnetic radiation that is a remnant from an early stage of the universe, also known as "relic radiation". The CMB is faint cosmic background radiation filling all spac ...

(CMB). It collected data during an 11-day science flight over Antarctica. Measurements of the polarization of the CMB could probe an inflationary epoch that took place shortly after the

big bang The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...

and significantly improve constraints on the values of several cosmological parameters. EBEX was designed to provide critical information about the level of polarized Galactic dust which will be necessary for all future CMB polarization experiments. In October 2014, Limon was awarded the Thomson Reuter prize of Highly Cited Researcher; this prize recognizes researchers that are in the top 1% of most cited scientists. Limon is currently working on the

Simons Observatory The Simons Observatory is located in the high Atacama Desert in Northern Chile inside the Chajnator Science Preserve, at an altitude of 5,200 meters (17,000 ft). The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and the Simons Array are located nearby an ...

, a suite of ground-based telescopes in the Atacama Desert in Chile designed to measure the intensity and polarization of the CMB. The Simons Observatory aims to reveal information about the contents and energy density of matter in the Universe and test theories of

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reductio ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Limon, Michele Living people 1961 births University of Milan alumni Columbia University faculty Scientists from Milan Place of birth missing (living people) Italian astrophysicists Italian expatriates in the United States