Craig Hogan awarded 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

Fermilab and University of Chicago scientist Craig Hogan is a principal researcher on a team that has been awarded the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

Hogan, who was recognized for his work on the High-Z Supernova Search Team, is director of Fermilab’s Center for Particle Astrophysics and a professor in astronomy & astrophysics at UChicago.

Two teams share the world’s most lucrative academic prize. The teams are the Supernova Cosmology Project, led by Saul Perlmutter of the University of California, Berkeley; and the High-Z Supernova Search Team, led by Brian P. Schmidt of Australian National University and Adam Riess of Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute. Fifty-one total prize recipients will split $3 million.

The prize went to the recipients for “the most unexpected discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, rather than slowing, as long has been assumed.”

The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics recognizes major insights into the deepest questions of the universe. The Breakthrough Prizes were founded by Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki, Jack Ma and Cathy Zhang, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan. The prizes aim to celebrate scientists and generate excitement about the pursuit of science as a career.