This is a list of people who have made noteworthy contributions to

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

(the study of the history and large-scale structure of the universe) and their cosmological achievements

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Tom Abel Tom Abel (born 1970) is a German cosmologist who first simulated the collapse of a metal-free massive star that belongs to the first generation of stars in the Universe. This work was done in collaboration with Greg L. Bryan and Michael L. Norm ...

(1970–) studied primordial star formation * Roberto Abraham (1965–) studied the shapes of early galaxies * Andreas Albrecht studied the formation of the early universe, cosmic structure, and dark energy *

Hannes Alfvén Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén (; 30 May 1908 – 2 April 1995) was a Swedish electrical engineer, plasma physicist and winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). He described the class of MHD waves now ...

(1908–1995) theorized that galactic magnetic fields could be generated by plasma currents *

Ralph A. Alpher Ralph Asher Alpher (February 3, 1921 – August 12, 2007) was an American physical cosmology, cosmologist, who carried out pioneering work in the early 1950s on the Big Bang model, including Big Bang nucleosynthesis and predictions of the cosmic ...

(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 (310–230 BC) early proponent of heliocentrism *

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

(circa 384–322 BC) posited a geocentric cosmology that was widely accepted for many centuries *

Aryabhata Aryabhata ( ISO: ) or Aryabhata I (476–550 CE) was an Indian mathematician and astronomer of the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. He flourished in the Gupta Era and produced works such as the ''Aryabhatiya'' (which ...

(476–550) described a geocentric model with slow and fast epicycles

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Ja'far ibn Muhammad Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi, Latinized as Albumasar (also ''Albusar'', ''Albuxar''; full name ''Abū Maʿshar Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Balkhī'' ; , AH 171–272), was an early Persian Muslim astrologer, thought to be the greatest as ...

(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 John David Barrow (29 November 1952 – 26 September 2020) was an English cosmologist, theoretical physicist, and mathematician. He served as Gresham Professor of Geometry at Gresham College from 2008 to 2011. Barrow was also a writer of pop ...

(1952–2020) popularized the anthropic cosmological principle *

Charles L. Bennett Charles L. Bennett (born November 1956) is an American observational astrophysicist. He is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, the Alumni Centennial Professor of Physics and Astronomy and a Gilman Scholar at Johns Hopkins University. He is t ...

(1956–) studied the large-scale structure of the universe by mapping irregularities in microwave background radiation * Orfeu Bertolami (1959–) studied the cosmological constant, inflation, dark energy-dark matter unification and interaction, alternative gravity theories *

Somnath Bharadwaj Somnath Bharadwaj (born 28 October 1964) is an Indian theoretical physicist who works on Theoretical Astrophysics and Cosmology. Bharadwaj was born in India, studied at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, and later received his Ph ...

(1964–) studied large-scale structure formation * James Binney (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 Sir Hermann Bondi (1 November 1919 – 10 September 2005) was an Austrian- British mathematician and cosmologist. He is best known for developing the steady state model of the universe with Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold as an alternative to the ...

(1919–2005) developed the steady-state model *

Mustapha Ishak Boushaki Mustapha Ishak-Boushaki is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist and professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is known for his contributions to the studies of cosmic acceleration and dark energy, gravitational lensing, and testing al ...

(1967–) physicist researcher on Cosmology *

Tycho Brahe Tycho Brahe ( ; born Tyge Ottesen Brahe; generally called Tycho (14 December 154624 October 1601) was a Danish astronomer, known for his comprehensive astronomical observations, generally considered to be the most accurate of his time. He was ...

(1546–1601) promoted a geo-heliocentric system of epicycles * Robert Brandenberger (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 Sean Michael Carroll (born October 5, 1966) is an American theoretical physicist and philosopher who specializes in quantum mechanics, gravity, and cosmology. He is (formerly) a research professor in the Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical ...

(1966–) researched dark energy, general relativity, and spontaneous inflation * Gennady V. Chibisov (1946–2008) origin of cosmological density perturbations from quantum fluctuations * Peter Coles (1963–) modeled galactic clustering and authored several cosmology books * C. B. Collins used the anthropic principle to solve the flatness problem *

Asantha Cooray Asantha R. Cooray is a professor and a chancellor's fellow at University of California, Irvine, California, US, and a member of the research faculty at the California Institute of Technology. His research expertise is in the field of space science ...

(1973–) studied dark energy, halo models of large structure, and cosmic microwave radiation *

Nicolaus Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus (; pl, Mikołaj Kopernik; gml, Niklas Koppernigk, german: Nikolaus Kopernikus; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic canon, who formulated ...

(1473–1543) formulated a heliocentric cosmology

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Paul Davies Paul Charles William Davies (born 22 April 1946) is an English physicist, writer and broadcaster, a professor in Arizona State University and Director of BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science. He is affiliated with the Institute ...

(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 Avishai Dekel (born 1951) is a professor of physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, holding the Andre Aisenstadt Chair of Theoretical Physics. His primary research interests are in astrophysics and cosmology. Academic career Dekel ...

(1951–) studied galaxy formation and large scale structure in dark matter-dark energy dominated universes * Robert H. Dicke (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 George Petros Efstathiou (; born 2 September 1955) is a British astrophysicist who is Professor of Astrophysics (1909) at the University of Cambridge and was the first Director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology at the University of Cambr ...

(Cosmologist) (1955–) pioneering computer simulations, observations of galaxy clustering and studies of the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background *

Jürgen Ehlers Jürgen Ehlers (; 29 December 1929 – 20 May 2008) was a German physicist who contributed to the understanding of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. From graduate and postgraduate work in Pascual Jordan's relativity research group ...

(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 Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...

(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 (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 (1968–) his main interests are in general relativity and theoretical cosmology * 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 George Gamow (March 4, 1904 – August 19, 1968), born Georgiy Antonovich Gamov ( uk, Георгій Антонович Гамов, russian: Георгий Антонович Гамов), was a Russian-born Soviet and American polymath, theoret ...

(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 (1947–) discovered the Great Wall, a superstructure-scale filament of galaxies *

Thomas Gold Thomas Gold (May 22, 1920 – June 22, 2004) was an Austrian-born American astrophysicist, a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society (London). Gold was ...

(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 John Richard Gott III (born February 8, 1947) is a professor of astrophysics, astrophysical sciences at Princeton University. He is known for his work on time travel and the Doomsday argument. Exotic matter time travel theories Paul Davies's ...

(1947–) proposed the use of cosmic strings for time travel *

Alan Guth Alan Harvey Guth (; born February 27, 1947) is an American theoretical physicist and cosmologist. Guth has researched elementary particle theory (and how particle theory is applicable to the early universe). He is Victor Weisskopf Professor of ...

(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 lecture ...

(1936–) researched noncommutative approaches to quantum gravity * Robert C. Herman (1914–1997) predicted the background radiation temperature * Lars Hernquist (1954–) studied galaxy formation and evolution *

Chris Hirata Christopher Michael Hirata (born November 30, 1982) is an American cosmologist and astrophysicist. Hirata was 13 years old when he won the gold medal in 1996 at the International Physics Olympiad. He received a bachelor's degree in Physics at C ...

(1982–) researched weak gravitational lensing *

Honorius Augustodunensis Honorius Augustodunensis (c. 1080 – c. 1140), commonly known as Honorius of Autun, was a very popular 12th-century Christian theologian who wrote prolifically on many subjects. He wrote in a non-scholastic manner, with a lively style, and his wor ...

(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 Budapes ...

(1860–1931) formulated a pseudoscientific theory of ice as the basic substance of all cosmic processes *

Fred Hoyle Sir Fred Hoyle FRS (24 June 1915 – 20 August 2001) was an English astronomer who formulated the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and was one of the authors of the influential B2FH paper. He also held controversial stances on other sci ...

(1915–2001) promoted the steady state theory, used the anthropic principle to explain the energy levels of carbon nuclei * Edwin P. Hubble (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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(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 (1939–) discovered spatially homogeneous but anisotropic solutions to general relativity * Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) pioneered heliocentrism, discovered elliptical planetary motion, attempted to explain heavenly motions through physical causes *

Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov Isaak Markovych Khalatnykov ( uk, Ісаа́к Ма́ркович Хала́тников; 17 October 1919 – 9 January 2021) was a leading Soviet theoretical physicist who has made significant contributions to many areas of theoretical physics, ...

(1919–2021) conjectured an oscillatory model with an essential singularity for the evolution of the universe *

Tom W. B. Kibble Sir Thomas Walter Bannerman Kibble (; 23 December 1932 – 2 June 2016) was a British Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist, senior research investigator at the Blackett Laboratory and Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial ...

(1932–2016) introduced the concept of cosmic strings * Robert Kirshner (1949–) discovered the Boötes void, a large region sparsely populated with galaxies, and wrote a popular book on cosmology * Edward Kolb (1951–) studied big bang cosmology including the emergence of baryons and dark matter, and wrote a popular textbook on cosmology * Lawrence M. Krauss (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 (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 Janna J. Levin (born 1967) is an American theoretical cosmologist and a professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most count ...

(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 Abraham "Avi" Loeb ( he, אברהם (אבי) לייב; born February 26, 1962) is an Israeli-American theoretical physicist who works on astrophysics and cosmology. Loeb is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University. He had ...

(1962–) researched primordial stars, primordial black holes, quasars, reionization, gravitational lensing, and gamma-ray bursts * Jean-Pierre Luminet (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 (1967–) proposed much faster speeds of light in the young universe as an alternative explanation to inflation for its homogeneity * Richard Massey (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 ...

(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 Jayant Vishnu Narlikar (born 19 July 1938) is an Indian astrophysicist and emeritus professor at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA). He developed with Sir Fred Hoyle the conformal gravity theory, known as Hoyl ...

(1938–) promoted steady state theories *

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...

(1642–1727) formulated the law of universal gravitation 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 (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 (1931–) linked singularities to gravitational collapse, conjectured the nonexistence of naked singularities, and used gravitational entropy to explain homogeneity *

Arno Penzias Arno Allan Penzias (; born April 26, 1933) is an American physicist, radio astronomer and Nobel laureate in physics. Along with Robert Woodrow Wilson, he discovered the cosmic microwave background radiation, which helped establish the Big Bang ...

(1933–) was the first to observe the cosmic background radiation *

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 ...

(1959–) used supernova observations to measure the expansion of the universe * Mark M. Phillips (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 Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

(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 Lisa Randall (born June 18, 1962) is an American theoretical physicist working in particle physics and cosmology. She is the Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science on the physics faculty of Harvard University. Her research includes the funda ...

(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 Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 23 June 1942) is a British cosmologist and astrophysicist. He is the fifteenth Astronomer Royal, ...

(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 Adam Guy Riess (born December 16, 1969) is an American astrophysicist and Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute. He is known for his research in using supernovae as cosmologic ...

(1969–) found evidence in supernova data that the expansion of the universe is accelerating and confirming dark energy models *

Wolfgang Rindler Wolfgang Rindler (18 May 1924 – 8 February 2019) was a physicist working in the field of general relativity where he is known for introducing the term "event horizon", Rindler coordinates, and (in collaboration with Roger Penrose) for the use of ...

(1924–2019) coined the phrase "event horizon", Rindler Coordinates, and popularized the use of spinors (with Roger Penrose) * Howard P. Robertson (1903–1961) solved the two-body problem in an approximation to general relativity, developed the standard model of general relativity *

Vera Rubin Vera Florence Cooper Rubin (; July 23, 1928 – December 25, 2016) was an American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates. She uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted and observed angular motion of galaxies by study ...

(1928–2016) discovered discrepancies in galactic rotation rates leading to the theory of dark matter

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* Rainer K. Sachs (1932–) discovered gravitationally induced redshifts in the cosmic background radiation * Carl Sagan (1934–1996) *

Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for n ...

(1921–1989) invented the theory of twins, CPT-symmetric universes *

Allan Sandage Allan Rex Sandage (June 18, 1926 – November 13, 2010) was an American astronomer. He was Staff Member Emeritus with the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California. He determined the first reasonably accurate values for the Hubble con ...

(1936–2010) set the cosmological distance scale and accurately estimated the speed of expansion of the universe * Brian P. Schmidt (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 (1926–1999) studied many aspects of cosmology and supervised many other leading cosmologists * Irving Segal (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, Seleuk ...

(c.190–c.150 BC) used tidal observations to support a heliocentric model * Roman Ulrich Sexl (1939–1986) developed an ether-based theory of absolute simultaneity that is mathematically equivalent to special relativity *

Al-Sijzi Abu Sa'id Ahmed ibn Mohammed ibn Abd al-Jalil al-Sijzi (c. 945 - c. 1020, also known as al-Sinjari and al-Sijazi; fa, ابوسعید سجزی; Al-Sijzi is short for " Al-Sijistani") was an Iranian Muslim astronomer, mathematician, and astrolo ...

(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 Vesto Melvin Slipher (; November 11, 1875 – November 8, 1969) was an American astronomer who performed the first measurements of radial velocities for galaxies. He was the first to discover that distant galaxies are redshifted, thus providing t ...

(1875–1969) performed the first measurements of radial velocities for galaxies, providing the empirical basis for the expansion of the universe *

Lee Smolin Lee Smolin (; born June 6, 1955) is an American theoretical physicist, a faculty member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Waterloo and a member of the graduate faculty of the ...

(1955–) studied quantum gravity, popularized a theory of cosmological natural selection * George F. Smoot (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 Paul Joseph Steinhardt (born December 25, 1952) is an American theoretical physicist whose principal research is in cosmology and condensed matter physics. He is currently the Albert Einstein Professor in Science at Princeton University, where ...

(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 (903–986) wrote the ''Book of Fixed Stars'', which lists over forty constellations and the stars within them * Nicholas B. Suntzeff (1952–) used supernova observations to discover acceleration in the expansion of the universe, calibrated the supernova distance scale *

Rashid Sunyaev Rashid Alievich Sunyaev ( tt-Cyrl, Рәшит Гали улы Сөнәев, russian: Раши́д Али́евич Сюня́ев; born 1 March 1943 in Tashkent, USSR) is a German, Soviet, and Russian astrophysicist of Tatar descent. He got his ...

(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 Max Erik Tegmark (born 5 May 1967) is a Swedish-American physicist, cosmologist and machine learning researcher. He is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the president of the Future of Life Institute. He is also a scienti ...

(1967–) determined the parameters of the lambda-cold dark matter model using Sloan Survey data, studied mathematical models of multiverses *

Trinh Xuan Thuan Trịnh Xuân Thuận (born August 20, 1948) is a Vietnamese-American astrophysicist. Biography Trịnh Xuân Thuận was born in Hanoi, Vietnam. He completed his B.S. at the California Institute of Technology, and his Ph.D. at Princeton Univer ...

(1948–) researched galaxy formation and evolution * William G. Tifft theorized that galactic redshifts are quantized *

Beatrice Tinsley Beatrice Muriel Hill Tinsley (27 January 1941 – 23 March 1981) was a British-born New Zealand astronomer and cosmologist and professor of astronomy at Yale University, whose research made fundamental contributions to the astronomical understa ...

(1941–1981) researched galactic evolution, the creation of lightweight elements, and accelerated expansion of the universe * Frank J. Tipler (1947–) proved that time travel requires singularities, promoted the anthropic principle * Richard C. Tolman (1881–1948) showed that the cosmic background keeps a black-body profile as the universe expands * Mark Trodden (1968–) studied cosmological implications of topological defects in field theories * Michael S. Turner (1949–) coined the term ''dark energy'' *

Neil Turok Neil Geoffrey Turok (born 16 November 1958) is a South African physicist. He holds the Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics at the University of Edinburgh since 2020, and has been director emeritus of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physi ...

(1958–) predicted correlations between polarization and temperature anisotropy in the cosmic background, explained the big bang as a brane collision * Henry Tye (1947–) proposed brane-antibrane interactions as a cause of inflation

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Alexander Vilenkin Alexander Vilenkin (russian: Алекса́ндр Виле́нкин; uk, Олександр Віленкін; born 13 May 1949) is the Leonard Jane Holmes Bernstein Professor of Evolutionary Science and Director of the Institute of Cosmology a ...

(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 (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 Prof Arthur Geoffrey Walker FRS FRSE (17 July 1909 in Watford, Hertfordshire, England – 31 March 2001) was a British mathematician who made important contributions to physics and physical cosmology. Although he was an accomplished geomete ...

(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 (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 (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 Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich ( be, Я́каў Бары́савіч Зяльдо́віч, russian: Я́ков Бори́сович Зельдо́вич; 8 March 1914 – 2 December 1987), also known as YaB, was a leading Soviet physicist of Bel ...

(1914–1987) used accretion disks of massive black holes to explain quasars, predicted Compton scattering of the cosmic background *

Fritz Zwicky Fritz Zwicky (; ; February 14, 1898 – February 8, 1974) was a Swiss astronomer. He worked most of his life at the California Institute of Technology in the United States of America, where he made many important contributions in theoretical an ...

(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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