- Albert Einstein
This German born physicist is considered one of the world's greatest thinkers in history. Not only did he shape the way people think of time, space, matter, energy, and gravity but he also was a supporter of Zionism and peaceful living. Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm Germany, and spent most of his youth living in Munich, where his family owned a small electric machinery shop. He attended schooling in Munich, which he found unimaginative and dull.
- Quentin Smith
Quentin Smith is a philosopher and professor of philosophy at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He is most well-known for his work in the philosophy of time, philosophy of language, philosophy of physics and philosophy of religion. However, Smith himself is not limited in his interests, which occasionally branch out into the philosophy of mind, metaphysics, ethics, and physical cosmology. Smith is also a painter and a poet.
- Roger Penrose
Sir Roger Penrose, OM, FRS (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematical physicist and Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford and Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College. He is renowned for his work in mathematical physics, in particular his contributions to general relativity and cosmology. He is also a recreational mathematician and philosopher.
- Paul Davies
Paul Charles William Davies (born April 22, 1946) is a British-born, physicist, writer and broadcaster, who holds the position of College Professor at Arizona State University. He has held previous academic appointments at the University of Cambridge, University of London, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, University of Adelaide and Macquarie University. His research interests are in the fields of cosmology, quantum field theory, and astrobiology.
- John D. Barrow
John David Barrow FRS (born November 29, 1952, London) is an English cosmologist, theoretical physicist, and mathematician. He is currently Research Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge. Barrow is also a writer of popular science and an amateur playwright. Barrow obtained his first degree in Mathematics and physics from Van Mildert College at the University of Durham in 1974.
- Lee Smolin
Lee Smolin (born 1955 in New York City) is an American theoretical physicist, a researcher at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Waterloo. Smolin is best known for devising several different approaches to quantum gravity, in particular loop quantum gravity. He advocates that the two primary approaches to quantum gravity, loop quantum gravity and string theory, …
- Max Tegmark
Max Tegmark (born 1967) is a Swedish-American cosmologist. Tegmark is an Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he belongs to the scientific directorate of the "Foundational Questions Institute". As part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey team, he has worked on data analysis, extracting the parameters of the Lambda-CDM model from observational large-scale structure and cosmic microwave background data.
- Michael Turner
Michael S. Turner is a theoretical cosmologist, who coined the term "dark energy". He is the Bruce V. & Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago and Assistant Director for Mathematical and Physical Sciences for the US National Science Foundation. His book "The Early Universe", co-written with fellow Chicago cosmologist Rocky Kolb, is the standard text on the subject.
- George Ellis
George Ellis, FRS, (born August 11, 1939) is the Distinguished Professor of Complex Systems in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He co-authored "The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time" with University of Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking, published in 1973, and is considered one of the world's leading theorists in cosmology. He is an active Quaker and in 2004 he won the Templeton Prize.
- Hermann Bondi
Professor Sir Hermann Bondi, KCB, FRS (1 November 1919-10 September 2005) was an Anglo-Austrian mathematician and cosmologist. He is best known for developing the steady-state theory of the universe with Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold as an alternative to the Big Bang theory, but his most lasting legacy will probably be his important contributions to the theory of general relativity.
- Jim Peebles
Philip James Edwin Peebles (born April 25 1935) is an Canadian-American physicist and theoretical cosmologist. He is usually known by the name "James" or "Jim". He was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and completed his bachelor's degree at the University of Manitoba. He completed his doctorate at Princeton University and has remained there since then. He is currently a professor emeritus. He made many important contributions to the big bang model.
- Willem de Sitter
Willem de Sitter (May 6 1872, Sneek - November 20 1934, Leiden <sup></sup>) was a Dutch mathematician, physicist and astronomer. Born in Friesland, De Sitter studied mathematics at Groningen University and then joined the Groningen astronomical laboratory. He worked at the Cape Observatory in South Africa (1897-1899) then, in 1908, de Sitter was appointed to the chair of astronomy at Leiden University. He was director of the Leiden Observatory from 1919 until his death.
- Alexander Alexandrovich Friedman
Alexander Alexandrovich Friedman or Friedmann (June 16 1888, Saint Petersburg, Imperial Russia - September 16 1925, Leningrad, USSR) was a Russian and Soviet cosmologist and mathematician. Alexander Friedmann lived much of his life in Leningrad. He fought in World War I (on behalf of Imperial Russia) as a bomber and later lived through the Russian Revolution of 1917. He discovered the expanding-universe solution to general relativity field equations in 1922, …
- Neil Turok
Dr. Neil Turok earned his PhD at Imperial College. After a postdoc in Santa Barbara, he was appointed Associate Scientist at Fermilab before moving to Princeton where he became Professor of Physics in 1994. In 1997 he was appointed to the Chair of Mathematical Physics in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) at Cambridge. In October, 2008, he moved to the Perimeter Institute as its new Director.
- Robert H. Dicke
Robert Henry Dicke (May 6 1916 - March 4 1997) was an American physicist, who made important contributions to the fields of astrophysics, atomic physics, cosmology and gravity.
- Marc Davis
Marc Davis (born 8 September 1947) is a Professor of Astronomy and Physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Davis received his bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969, his Ph.D from Princeton University in 1973 and has been elected to both the National Academy of Sciences (1991) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1992).
- Sean M. Carroll
Sean M. Carroll (b. 1966) is a senior research associate in the Department of Physics at the California Institute of Technology. He is a theoretical cosmologist specializing in dark energy and general relativity. He is also a contributor to the physics blog Cosmic Variance, and has written for science magazines such as "Nature", "Seed", "Sky & Telescope", and "New Scientist". He is the author of "Spacetime And Geometry", …
- Alexander Vilenkin
Alexander Vilenkin is Professor of Physics and Director of the "Institute of Cosmology" at Tufts University. A theoretical physicist who has been working in the field of cosmology for 25 years, Vilenkin has written over 150 papers and is responsible for introducing the ideas of eternal inflation and quantum creation of the universe from nothing. His work in cosmic strings has been pivotal.
- David Todd Wilkinson
David Todd Wilkinson (13 May 1935 - 5 September 2002) was a world-renowned pioneer in the field of cosmology, specializing in the study of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) left over from the Big Bang. He was born in Hillsdale, Michigan, and earned his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Michigan under the supervision of H. Richard Crane. He was a Professor of Physics at Princeton University from 1965 until his retirement in 2002.
- Carl Wilhelm Wirtz
Carl Wilhelm Wirtz (24 August 1876, Krefeld - 18 February 1938, Hamburg) was an astronomer who spent his time between Germany and the Observatory of Strasbourg. He observed a systematic redshift of nebulae, which was difficult to interpret in terms of a cosmological model in which the Universe is filled more or less uniformly with stars and nebulae. He used the equivalent in German of "K correction".
- A. G. Doroshkevich
A. G. Doroshkevich is a Russian (and former Soviet) theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist. He is best known for his work with Igor Novikov on the recognition of Cosmic microwave background radiation as a detectable phenomenon in the spring of 1964.
- Fred Adams
Fred Adams is an American astrophysicist who has made contributions to the study of physical cosmology.
- Jayant Narlikar
Professor Jayant Vishnu Narlikar (Marathi: प्रा. जयंत विष्णू नारळीकर) is an eminent Indian astrophysicist. Narlikar is considered a leading expert and defender of the steady state cosmology. His work on conformal gravity theory with Sir Fred Hoyle, called Hoyle-Narlikar theory, demonstrated a synthesis can be achieved between Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and Mach's principle.
- Jean-Pierre Luminet
Jean-Pierre Luminet is a French astrophysicist, specialized in black holes and cosmology. He works as research director for the CNRS ("Centre national de la recherche scientifique"), and is a member of the "Laboratoire Univers et Théories" (LUTH) of the observatory of Paris-Meudon. The asteroid 5523 Luminet, was named after him
- Ralph Asher Alpher
Ralph Asher Alpher (born 1921) is a U.S. cosmologist. Alpher was something of a child prodigy, and at the age of 16 he was offered a scholarship to MIT, but it was withdrawn, possibly because they found out he was of Jewish ancestry. Nonetheless highly driven, he earned his bachelor's degree from George Washington University, where he met Russian physicist George Gamow, there a professor who took him on as his doctoral student.
- Howard Percy Robertson
Howard Percy Robertson was an American mathematician and physicist known for contributions related to physical cosmology and the uncertainty principle. Robertson was born in Hoquiam, Washington and earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1922 and a master’s in mathematics and physics in 1923 from the University of Washington in Seattle. He went on to complete his PhD at Caltech in mathematics and physics in 1925 under Harry Bateman, with the dissertation, …
- Carlos Frenk
Professor Carlos S. Frenk (born October 27, 1951) is a world-famous Mexican-British cosmologist who has given invited lectures at major international conferences thoroughout the world. His main interests lie in the field of cosmology, galaxy formation and computer simulations of cosmic structure formation.
- David Wands
David Wands is Professor of cosmology at the University of Portsmouths institute of cosmology. His research interests are in cosmology and the physics of the early universe. Wands has published numerous papers on cosmology.
- Richard C. Tolman
Richard Chace Tolman (March 4 1881-September 5 1948) was an American mathematical physicist and physical chemist who was an authority on statistical mechanics and made important contributions to the early development of theoretical cosmology. He was a professor of physical chemistry and mathematical physics at Caltech. Born in West Newton, Massachusetts, elder brother of behavioral psychologist Edward Chace Tolman, …
- Joel Primack
Joel Primack is a professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz and works at the Lick Observatory. Dr. Primack received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1970. According to his web site at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Dr. Primack's specific field of study is relativistic quantum field theory, cosmology and particle astrophysics.
- Martin Bojowald
Martin Bojowald is an German-born physicist who now works at the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry of the Pennsylvania State University, USA. In 2005 he joined the permanent staff of the IGPG, after spending several years at the Max-Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Golm, Germany. He works on loop quantum gravity and physical cosmology and is credited with establishing the sub-field of Loop quantum cosmology.
- Tom Abel
Tom Abel is a 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. Norman and was published in Science magazine (2002, 295, 93). He currently works at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. He received his Doctor of Philosophy from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in 2000.
- Laura Mersini
Dr. Laura Mersini is a theoretical physicist-cosmologist and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since January 2004. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Tirana in her native Albania, and she was awarded a PhD in 2000 by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has worked on a variety of topics on the particle physics-cosmology interface.
- Arthur Geoffrey Walker
Arthur Geoffrey Walker was a leading mathematician who made important contributions to physics and physical cosmology. He was born in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. Walker was an accomplished geometer, but he is best remembered today for two important contributions to general relativity. Together with H. P. Robertson, the well known Robertson-Walker metric for the FRW cosmological models, which are exact solutions of the Einstein field equation.
- Roberto Peccei
Roberto D. Peccei is Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California Los Angeles, a position he has held since October, 2000. He is a particle theorist whose principal interests lie in the area of electroweak interactions and in the interface between particle physics and physical cosmology. Peccei was born in Italy, completed his secondary school in Argentina, and came to the United States in 1958 to pursue his university studies in physics.
- Jaan Einasto
Jaan Einasto (born 23 February 1929) is an eminent Estonian astrophysicist and one of the discoverers of Dark Matter and of the cellular structure of the Universe. Born in Tartu, he attended the University of Tartu, where he received the Ph.D. equivalent in 1955 and a senior research doctorate in 1972. From 1952, he has worked as a scientist at the Tartu Observatory (1977-1998) Head of the Department of Cosmology; in 1992-1995, …
- John Moffat
John Moffat is a Professor Emeritus in physics at the University of Toronto. He is also an adjunct Professor in physics at the University of Waterloo and a resident affiliate member of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. He is best known for his work on a Variable speed of light approach to cosmological problems, which posits that the speed of light may have been much faster in early moments of the Big Bang.
- Yakov Borisovich Zel'Dovich
Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich was a prolific Soviet physicist. He played an important role in the development of Soviet nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, and made important contributions to the fields of adsorption and catalysis, shock waves, nuclear physics, particle physics, astrophysics, physical cosmology, and general relativity. He was born in Minsk (now Belarus). Four months later his family moved to Saint Petersburg (Leningrad from 1924-1991).
- Michael Heller
Michael Heller, (birth: October 14, 1936 - USA) is a professor of philosophy at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Cracow, Poland, and an adjunct member of the Vatican Observatory staff. He also serves as a lecturer in the philosophy of science and logic at the Theological Institute in Tarnow. A Roman Catholic priest, Dr. Heller was ordained in 1959.
- Wojciech H. Zurek
Wojciech Hubert Żurek is a physicist and a Laboratory Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory. His research interests are in the field of quantum theory, especially decoherence, and other physics topics. His work also has a lot of potential benefit to the emerging field of quantum computing. Zurek was educated in Kraków, Poland (M.Sc. 1974) and Austin, Texas (Ph.D. 1979). He spent two years at Caltech as a Tolman Fellow, and started at LANL as a J. Oppenheimer Fellow.