Saul Perlmutter (born September 22, 1959) is an American
astrophysicist who is a professor of physics at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, where he holds the Franklin W. and Karen Weber Dabby Chair, and is head of the International Supernova Cosmology Project at the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...
. He is a member of both the
American Academy of Arts & Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other F ...
and the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
, and was elected a
Fellow
A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...
of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
in 2003. He is a member of the
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
. Perlmutter shared the 2006
Shaw Prize in Astronomy, the
2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, and the 2015
Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics with
Brian P. Schmidt and
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 cosmological ...
for providing evidence that the
expansion of the universe is accelerating. Since 2021, he has been a member of the
President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).
Education
Saul Perlmutter was born to Felice (Feige) D. Perlmutter (née Davidson), professor emerita of the
Temple University
Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...
School of Social Administration, and
Daniel D. Perlmutter, professor emeritus of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
. His maternal grandfather, the
Yiddish
Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...
teacher Samuel Davidson (1903–1989), emigrated from the
Bessarabia
Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...
n town of
Floreşti to
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
in 1919 and then with his wife Chaika Newman to
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
.
Perlmutter spent his childhood in the
Mount Airy neighborhood of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
. He went to Quaker schools in nearby
Germantown; first
Greene Street Friends School for the elementary grades, followed by
Germantown Friends School for grades seven through twelve. He graduated with an AB in physics from
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
''magna cum laude'' in 1981 and received his PhD in physics from
Berkeley in 1986. Perlmutter's PhD thesis, entitled "An Astrometric Search for a Stellar Companion to the Sun" and supervised by
Richard A. Muller, described the development and use of an automated telescope to search for
Nemesis
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Nemesis (; ) also called Rhamnousia (or Rhamnusia; ), was the goddess who personified retribution for the sin of hubris: arrogance before the gods.
Etymology
The name ''Nemesis'' is derived from the Greek ...
candidates.
[ At the same time, he was using this telescope to search for Nemesis and ]supernova
A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last stellar evolution, evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion ...
e, which would lead him to his award-winning work in cosmology. Perlmutter attributes the idea for an automated supernova search to Luis Alvarez, a 1968 Nobel laureate
The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...
, who shared his idea with Perlmutter's research adviser.[
]
Work
Perlmutter heads the Supernova Cosmology Project at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It was this team along with the competing High-z Supernova Search Team led by Riess and Schmidt, which found evidence of the accelerating expansion of the universe based on observing Type Ia supernova
A Type Ia supernova (read: "type one-A") is a type of supernova that occurs in binary systems (two stars orbiting one another) in which one of the stars is a white dwarf. The other star can be anything from a giant star to an even smaller white ...
in the distant universe. Type Ia supernova occurs whenever a white dwarf star gains enough additional mass to pass above the Chandrasekhar limit, usually by stealing additional mass from a companion star
A binary star or binary star system is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved as separate stars us ...
. Since all Type Ia supernovae are believed to occur in essentially the same way, they form a standard candle
The cosmic distance ladder (also known as the extragalactic distance scale) is the succession of methods by which astronomers determine the distances to celestial objects. A ''direct'' distance measurement of an astronomical object is possible ...
whose intrinsic luminosity
Luminosity is an absolute measure of radiated electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic energy per unit time, and is synonymous with the radiant power emitted by a light-emitting object. In astronomy, luminosity is the total amount of electroma ...
can be assumed to be approximately the same in all cases. By measuring the apparent luminosity of the explosion from Earth, researchers can then infer the distance to supernova. Comparing this inferred distance to the apparent redshift
In physics, a redshift is an increase in the wavelength, and corresponding decrease in the frequency and photon energy, of electromagnetic radiation (such as light). The opposite change, a decrease in wavelength and increase in frequency and e ...
of the explosion allows the observer to measure both the distance and relative velocity of the supernova.
The Supernova Cosmology Project concluded that these distant supernovae were receding more quickly than would be expected due to the Hubble expansion alone, and, by inference, the expansion of the universe must have been accelerated over the billions of years since the supernovae occurred. The High-z Team also came to a similar conclusion. The two teams' reports were published within weeks of each other, and their conclusions were readily accepted by the scientific community due to corroborating theories. This conclusion has subsequently been supported by other lines of evidence. These findings reinvigorated research into the nature of the universe, and especially into the role of dark energy
In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is a proposed form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. Its primary effect is to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe. It also slows the rate of structure format ...
.[ For this work Perlmutter was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, shared jointly with Riess and Schmidt.][
Perlmutter is a lead investigator in the Supernova/Acceleration Probe project, which aims to build a satellite dedicated to finding and studying more supernovae in the distant universe. The goal is to more precisely determine the rate at which the universe has been accelerating. He is also a participant in the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, which aims to increase our understanding of recent ]global warming
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...
through improved analyses of climate data.
Perlmutter is a professor and currently teaches at UC Berkeley.
Awards and recognition
In 2002, Perlmutter won the Department of Energy's E. O. Lawrence Award in Physics. In 2003, he was awarded the California Scientist of the Year Award, and, in 2005, he won the John Scott Award
John Scott Award, created in 1816 as the John Scott Legacy Medal and Premium, is presented to men and women whose inventions improved the "comfort, welfare, and happiness of human kind" in a significant way. "...the John Scott Medal Fund, establish ...
and the Padua Prize. In 2006, he shared the Shaw Prize in Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...
with 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 cosmological ...
and Brian P. Schmidt. The same year, Perlmutter won the Antonio Feltrinelli International Prize.
Perlmutter and his team shared the 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize (a $500,000 award) with Schmidt and the High-Z Team for discovering the accelerating expansion of the universe. In 2010, Perlmutter was named a Miller Senior Fellow of the Miller Institute at the University of California Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley ...
. In 2011, Perlmutter and Riess were named co-recipients of the Albert Einstein Medal.
Perlmutter shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Riess and Schmidt.[ The Nobel Prize includes a SEK 10 million cash award (approximately US$1.5 million). Perlmutter received one-half of the cash prize, while Riess and Schmidt shared the other half.][
In 2014, Perlmutter received the Golden Plate Award of the ]American Academy of Achievement
The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...
.
Perlmutter, Schmidt, Riess, and their teams shared the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics with $3 million to be split among them.
A United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...
2020 supercomputer
A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instruc ...
is named Perlmutter in his honor.
Family
Perlmutter is married to Laura Nelson, an anthropologist at University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, and they have one daughter, Noa. Perlmutter has two sisters: Shira Perlmutter (b. 1956), an attorney, law professor, and the fourteenth Register of Copyrights
The Register of Copyrights is the director of the United States Copyright Office within the Library of Congress, as provided by . The Office has been headed by a Register since 1897. The Register is appointed by, and responsible to, the Librar ...
, and Tova Perlmutter (b. 1967), a nonprofit executive.
Popular culture
Reference to Saul Perlmutter was made on the CBS television comedy series ''The Big Bang Theory
''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady for CBS. It aired from September 24, 2007, to May 16, 2019, running for 12 seasons and 279 episodes.
The show originally centered on five charact ...
'' during the 2011 episodes " The Speckerman Recurrence" and " The Rhinitis Revelation". In these episodes, the lead character Sheldon Cooper
Sheldon Lee Cooper, B.S., M.S., M.A., Ph.D., Sc.D., is a fictional character and one of the protagonists in the 2007–2019 CBS television series ''The Big Bang Theory'' and its 2017–2024 spinoff series ''Young Sheldon'', portrayed by act ...
, who aspires to win a Nobel Prize himself, jealously berates Perlmutter and questions the decision to award Perlmutter a Nobel Prize.
Technical reports and conference/event proceedings
* Perlmutter, S., ''et al.'
"Progress Report on the Berkeley/Anglo-Australian Observatory High-redshift Supernova Search"
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...
, (November 1990).
* Perlmutter, S., ''et al.'
"Discovery of the Most Distant Supernovae and the Quest for "
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...
, (May 1994).
* Perlmutter, S., ''et al.'
"Discovery of a Supernova Explosion at Half the Age of the Universe and its Cosmological Implications"
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...
, (December 16, 1997).
* Perlmutter, S., ''et al.'
"The Distant Type Ia Supernova Rate"
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...
, (May 28, 2002).
* Perlmutter, S., ''et al.'
"The Supernova Legacy Survey: Measurement of Omega_M, Omega_Lambda, and w from the First Year Data Set"
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...
, (October 14, 2005).
* Perlmutter, S
"Supernovae, Dark Energy and the Accelerating Universe: How DOE Helped to Win (yet another) Nobel Prize"
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...
, (January 13, 2012).
See also
* Cosmological constant
In cosmology, the cosmological constant (usually denoted by the Greek capital letter lambda: ), alternatively called Einstein's cosmological constant,
is a coefficient that Albert Einstein initially added to his field equations of general rel ...
* Dark energy
In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is a proposed form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. Its primary effect is to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe. It also slows the rate of structure format ...
* Dark matter
In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...
References
External links
Supernova Cosmology Project Website
*
List of scholarly publications
as provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) abstract server.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perlmutter, Saul
1959 births
Living people
20th-century American astronomers
21st-century American astronomers
Albert Einstein Medal recipients
American Nobel laureates
American astrophysicists
American cosmologists
American people of Moldovan-Jewish descent
Dark energy
Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Fellows of the American Physical Society
Germantown Friends School alumni
Harvard College alumni
Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory people
Members of the American Philosophical Society
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Nobel laureates in Physics
University of California, Berkeley alumni
University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty