Johns Hopkins astrophysicist
Charles L.
Bennett has been awarded the 2006 Harvey Prize, given
annually by the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology for
breakthroughs in science and technology, human health or
peace.
Bennett, a professor since 2005 in the university's
Henry A. Rowland
Department of Physics and Astronomy, will receive the
prestigious prize Jan. 25 at the Technion, a premier
science and technology university in Haifa, Israel. He is
the second Johns Hopkins faculty member to win the award
since it was established in 1972.
Bennett is being honored for significantly
contributing to knowledge of cosmology through pioneering
measurements of the cosmic microwave background. Initial
groundbreaking work using NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer
satellite was followed by his leadership of NASA's
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe project, known as
WMAP, which led to the precise determination of the age,
composition and curvature of the universe.
The Harvey Prize is given without regard to
nationality, race, religion or gender, and consists of a
cash award of $75,000 and the opportunity to lecture at the
Technion. Ten Harvey Prize winners have gone on to win
Nobel Prizes, including former Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev.
The prize honors the late Leo M. Harvey of Los
Angeles, who, through hard work and creativity, rose from
his origins as the son of a small Lithuanian factory owner
to become head of the international Harvey Aluminum Co.,
which provided metal alloys to the aerospace industry.
Bennett said he is honored to be associated with
Harvey's legacy.
"I am very grateful to my wonderful colleagues; it
continues to be a great pleasure to work together with them
to advance our knowledge of the universe," Bennett said.
Bennett and his team made international news in 2003,
when they announced their determination of the age of the
universe at 13.7 billion years. They also calculated the
makeup of the universe as 73 percent dark energy, 23
percent dark matter and 4 percent ordinary matter. The dark
energy and dark matter remain mysteries to this day, so
Bennett is leading a new effort to determine the nature of
the dark energy.
In March 2006, Bennett's Wilkinson Microwave
Anisotropy Probe team announced that the universe bears
signs that it expanded from quantum fluctuations to
astronomical size within its first trillionth of a second
of existence. The finding, based on data from WMAP,
supports a 20-year-old theory known as "inflation," which
describes how the cosmos grew suddenly from the subatomic
to a vast expanse of stars and galaxies.
Bennett was elected to the National Academy of
Sciences in 2005 and was named winner that year of the
academy's Henry Draper Medal, given once every four years
to an honoree who has made significant contributions to
astronomical physics. The third Draper Medal was awarded in
1890 to Henry Rowland, for whom Johns Hopkins' Department
of Physics and Astronomy is named.
Bennett's Harvey Prize comes five years after the
first awarded to a Johns Hopkins scientist. In 2001, Bert
Vogelstein, Clayton Professor of Oncology and Pathology at
the School of Medicine, won in recognition of his research
establishing a detailed genetic model of colorectal
cancer.
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