Charles C. Steidel, the Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, will accept the $500,000 Gruber Cosmology Prize from the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation at the University of Chicago on Friday, Oct. 15. Known for his discovery of the most distant galaxies to date, Steidel is credited with revolutionizing the study of galactic evolution.
The award ceremony will take place against the backdrop of UChicago's weekend Chandrasekhar Centennial Symposium, a tribute to Nobel laureate S. Chandrasekhar on what would have been his 100th birthday.
Originally from India, Chandra taught at the University of Chicago from 1937 until his death in 1995 (coincidentally the same year Steidel identified the earliest galaxies.)A world-renowned astrophysicist, Chandra was lauded for his work in theoretical structure and the evolution of stars. Scientists from around the world will gather in Chicago for the symposium.
Following the Gruber Cosmology Prize presentation, Steidel will deliver a public lecture titled "Observations of Structure Formation in the Adolescent Universe" at 4 p.m. at International House, 1414 E. 59th St.
"My main scientific interest is, and has been, how the galaxies got there," Steidel explained. "How and when did they form, and has the process changed over time?"
To answer these questions, astronomers need to observe galaxies at different stages of their development, over the course of billions of years. In the mid-1990s, using what was then the most powerful telescope on Earth, and implementing a method of measurement based on knowledge of the speed of light and more subtle factors, Steidel and his colleagues were able to find evidence of "primordial galaxies" some 12 billion years ago - when the universe was a mere 2 billion years old.
Like the universe, Steidel's work continues to evolve. Most recently, he has prepared a paper on a technique that uses multiple "skewers" of one-dimensional views through the universe to create a composite 3-D view of highly active galaxies spewing gas into space. He and his team have discovered that a galaxy can influence a region in space 100 times its own diameter.
The Gruber International Prize Program honors contemporary individuals in the fields of cosmology, genetics, neuroscience, and justice and women's rights, whose groundbreaking work provides new models that inspire and enable fundamental shifts in knowledge and culture..
The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation honors and encourages educational excellence, social justice and scientific achievements that better the human condition. For more information, visit www.gruberprizes.org.
-Alyson O'Mahoney
—Prof. Chuan He
