Martin Rees wins major cosmology prize
Distiguished astrophysicist Sir Martin Rees has won the Peter Gruber Foundation's 2001 Cosmology Prize for his fundamental and diverse contributions to our understanding of the universe. The Gruber prize - the world's only award for cosmology - recognizes Rees's studies of the cosmic microwave background, quasars, black holes and gamma-ray bursts. Rees is both British Astronomer Royal and Royal Society Research Professor at Cambridge University.
In 1968, together with Dennis Sciama, he predicted that fluctuations in the microwave background were due to the uneven distribution of matter in the universe. His research into the structure and evolution of the universe has also sparked many other research efforts. Elsewhere, his work as a spokesperson, educator, writer and public speaker have raised the profile of astrophysics and brought it to a wider audience.
The prize, which consists of a gold medal and a cash award of
$150 000, was presented on 2 November in Bern, Switzerland, where
Einstein formulated his special theory of relativity 100 years ago.
Lifetime award
At this year's international magnet technology conference, hosted by
CERN in Geneva, Peter Komarek, deputy director of the
Forschungszentrum, Karlsruhe, received a coveted Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) award for a lifetime's contributions
to the science and applications of superconducting magnets from the
conference organizing committee chairman Romeo Perin of CERN.