George Smoot

Infobox_Scientist
name = George Smoot

---

imagesize = 200px
caption = Smoot celebrating his Nobel Prize at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 3 October 2006
birth_date = birth date and age|1945|2|20
birth_place = Yukon, Florida, U.S.
residence = United States
nationality = United States
field = Physics
work_institution = Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
alma_mater = Massachusetts Institute of Technology
doctoral_advisor = David Frisch [cite news | author=Katherine Bourzac | title=Nobel Causes | url=http://www.technologyreview.com/article/17926/ | work=Technology Review | date=12 January 2007 |quote = And Smoot himself can still vividly recall playing a practical joke on his graduate thesis advisor, MIT physics professor David Frisch. | accessdate=2007-09-05]
doctoral_students =
known_for = Cosmic microwave background radiation
prizes = Nobel Prize in Physics (2006)

George Fitzgerald Smoot III (born February 20 1945) is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for his work on COBE with John C. Mather that led to the measurement "...of the black body form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation."

This work helped cement the big-bang theory of the universe using the Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE). According to the Nobel Prize committee, "the COBE-project can also be regarded as the starting point for cosmology as a precision science." [cite press release| url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2006/info.html | title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 2006 | publisher=The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences | format=.PDF | date=3 October 2006 | accessdate=2006-10-05]

He is a professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2003 he was awarded the Einstein Medal.

Biography

Education

Smoot was born in Yukon, Florida. He graduated from Upper Arlington High School in Upper Arlington, Ohio in 1962. He studied mathematics before switching to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he obtained dual bachelor's degrees in mathematics and physics in 1966, and a Ph.D. in particle physics in 1970. [cite press release | title=Nobelists' work supports big-bang theory | publisher=MIT Press Office | date=3 October 2006 | url=http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2006/smoot.html | accessdate=2006-10-03 ]

Although Smoot attended MIT, he was not the same Smoot who was laid end to end to measure the Harvard Bridge between Cambridge and Boston; [cite web | url=http://aether.lbl.gov/www/personnel/smoot/smoot-measure.html | title=The SMOOT as unit of Length | author=George Smoot | accessdate=2006-10-07] cite web | url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6210148 | title=Winning the Nobel Prize | author="Talk of the Nation" | publisher=National Public Radio | date=6 October 2006 | accessdate=2006-10-07] this was his cousin Oliver R. Smoot, an MIT alumnus who served as the chairman of the American National Standards Institute. [cite web | url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5043041 | title=Smoot, Namesake of a Unit of Length, Retires | author="All Things Considered" | publisher=National Public Radio | date=7 December 2005 | accessdate=2006-10-07]

Initial research

George Smoot then switched to cosmology, and went to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where he collaborated with Luis Walter Alvarez on the experiment HAPPE, a stratospheric balloon for the detection of antimatter in the upper atmosphere, which was predicted by the now obscure steady state theory of cosmology.

He then took up an interest in cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), previously discovered by Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson in 1964. There were, at that time, several open questions about this, relating directly to fundamental questions about the structure of the universe. Certain models predicted the universe as a whole was rotating, which would have an effect on the CMB: its temperature depending on the direction of observation. With the help of Alvarez and Richard A. Muller, Smoot developed a differential radiometer which measured the difference in temperature of the CMB between two directions 60 degrees apart. The instrument, which was mounted on a Lockheed U-2 plane, made it possible to determine that the overall rotation of the universe was zero, which was within the limits of accuracy of the instrument. It did, however, detect a variation in the temperature of the CMB of a different sort. That the CMB appears to be at a higher temperature on one side of the sky than on the opposite side, referred to as a dipole pattern, has been explained as a Doppler effect of the Earth's motion relative to the area of CMB emission, which is called the last scattering surface. Such a doppler effect arises because the Sun, and in fact the Milky Way as a whole, is not stationary, but rather is moving at nearly 600 km/s with respect to the last scattering surface. This is probably due to the gravitational attraction between our galaxy and a concentration of mass like the Great Attractor.

COBE

At that time, the CMB appeared to be perfectly uniform excluding the distortion caused by the Doppler effect as mentioned above. This result contradicted observations of the universe, with various structures such as galaxies, galaxy clusters, that indicate that the universe was relatively heterogeneous on a small scale. However, these structures formed slowly. Thus, if the universe is heterogeneous today, it would be heterogeneous at the time of the emission of the CMB as well, observable today through weak variations in the temperature of the CMB. It was the detection of these anisotropies that Smoot was working on in the late 1970s. He then proposed to NASA a project involving a satellite equipped with a detector that was similar to the one mounted on the U-2, but was more sensitive and not influenced by air pollution. The proposal was accepted and gave rise to the satellite COBE, and cost US$160 million. COBE was launched on November 18, 1989, after a delay owing to the destruction of the Space Shuttle Challenger. After more than two years of observation and analysis, the COBE research team announced on 23 April 1992 that the satellite had detected tiny fluctuations in the CMB, a breakthrough in the study of the early universe. [cite journal | last=Smoot | first=G.F. | coauthors="et al" | year=1992 | month=September | title=Structure in the COBE differential microwave radiometer first-year maps | journal=Astrophysical Journal | volume=396 | issue=1 | pages=pp.L1–L5 | doi=10.1086/186504 | url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1992ApJ...396L...1S&db_key=AST&data_type=HTML&format=&high=4381f4775710298 | accessdate=2007-09-05] The observations were "evidence for the birth of the universe" and Smoot said on the importance of his discovery that "If you're religious, it's like looking at God." [cite news | author=Associated Press | title=U.S. Scientists Find a 'Holy Grail': Ripples at Edge of the Universe | pages=1 | work=International Herald Tribune | date=April 24, 1992] [cite news | author=Thomas H. Maugh, II | title=Relics of Big Bang, Seen for First Time | pages=A1, A30 | work=Los Angeles Times | date=April 24, 1992]

The success of COBE was the outcome of prodigious team work involving more than 1,000 researchers, engineers and other participants. John Mather coordinated the entire process and also had primary responsibility for the experiment that revealed the blackbody form of the CMB measured by COBE. George Smoot had main responsibility for measuring the small variations in the temperature of the radiation. [cite press release | title=Pictures of a Newborn Universe | url=http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2006/press.html | publisher=Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences | date=3 October 2006 | accessdate=2007-09-05]

Smoot collaborated with "San Francisco Chronicle" journalist Keay Davidson to write the general-audience book "Wrinkles in Time", that chronicled his team's efforts. [cite book | last=Smoot | first=George | coauthors=Davidson, Keay | title=Wrinkles in Time | location=New York | publisher=W. Morrow | year=1993 | isbn=0688123309 ] In the book "The Very First Light", John Mather and John Boslough complement and broaden the COBE story [cite book | last=Mather | first=John | coauthors=Boslough, John | title=The Very First Light: The True Inside Story of the Scientific Journey Back to the Dawn of the Universe | location=New York | publisher=Basic Books | year=1997 | isbn=0465015751] , and suggest that George Smoot violated team policy by leaking news of COBE's discoveries to the press before NASA's formal announcement, a leak that, to Mather, smacked of self-promotion and betrayal, but Smoot eventually apologized for not following the agreed publicity plan, and Mather said tensions eventually eased. Mather acknowledged that "George had brought COBE worldwide publicity" the project might not normally have received. [http://www.ebdailynews.com/article/2006-10-4-eb-nobel] [cite news | author=Lynn Yarris | title=After the Phone Call | url=http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/sabl/2006/Oct/4.html | work=Science@Berkeley Lab | date=26 October 2006 | accessdate=2007-09-05]

Recent projects

After COBE, Smoot took part in another experiment involving a stratospheric balloon, MAXIMA, which had improved angular resolution compared to COBE, and refined the measurements of the anisotropies of the CMB. Smoot has continued CMB observations and analysis and is currently a collaborator on the third generation CMB anisotropy satellite Planck. He is also a collaborator in the design of the Supernova/Acceleration Probe (SNAP), a satellite which is proposed to measure the properties of dark energy. [cite web | title=Supernova/Acceleration Probe (SNAP) | url=http://snap.lbl.gov | publisher=Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | accessdate=2007-09-05] He has also assisted in analyzing data from the Spitzer Space Telescope in connection with measuring far infrared background radiation. [cite web | title=Spitzer Cosmic Far-IR Background Project | url=http://www-astro.lbl.gov/~bruce/spitzerlblpage | publisher=Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | accessdate=2007-09-05]

References

Publications

*Lubin, P. M. & G. F. Smoot. [http://www.osti.gov/cgi-bin/rd_accomplishments/display_biblio.cgi?id=ACC0181&numPages=11&fp=N "Search for Linear Polarization of the Cosmic Background Radiation"] , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States Department of Energy, (Oct. 1978).
*Gorenstein, M. V.& G. F. Smoot. [http://www.osti.gov/cgi-bin/rd_accomplishments/display_biblio.cgi?id=ACC0182&numPages=67&fp=N "Large-Angular-Scale Anisotropy in the Cosmic Background Radiation"] , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States Department of Energy, (May 1980).
*Smoot, G. F., De Amici, G., Friedman, S. D., Witebsky, C., Mandolesi, N., Partridge, R. B., Sironi, G., Danese, L. & G. De Zotti. [http://www.osti.gov/cgi-bin/rd_accomplishments/display_biblio.cgi?id=ACC0183&numPages=13&fp=N "Low Frequency Measurement of the Spectrum of the Cosmic Background Radiation"] , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States Department of Energy, (June 1983).
*Smoot, G. F., De Amici, G., Levin, S. & C. Witebsky. [http://www.osti.gov/cgi-bin/rd_accomplishments/display_biblio.cgi?id=ACC0184&numPages=15&fp=N "New Measurements of the Cosmic Background Radiation Spectrum"] , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States Department of Energy, (Dec. 1984).
*Smoot, G., Levin, S. M., Witebsky, C., De Amici, G., Y. Rephaeli. [http://www.osti.gov/cgi-bin/rd_accomplishments/display_biblio.cgi?id=ACC0185&numPages=15&fp=N "An Analysis of Recent Measurements of the Temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation"] , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States Department of Energy, (July 1987).
* Ade, P., Balbi, A., Bock, J., Borrill, J., Boscaleri, A., de Bernardis, P., Ferreira, P. G., Hanany, S., Hristov, V. V., Jaffe, A. H., Lange, A. E., Lee, A. T., Mauskopf, P. D., Netterfield, C. B., Oh, S., Pascale, E., Rabii, B., Richards, P. L., Smoot, G. F., Stompor, R., Winant,C. D. & J. H. P. Wu. [http://www.osti.gov/cgi-bin/rd_accomplishments/display_biblio.cgi?id=ACC0186&numPages=7&fp=N "MAXIMA-1: A Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy on Angular Scales of 10' to 5 degrees"] , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), United States Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Science Foundation (NSF), KDI Precision Products, Inc., Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council UK, (June 4, 2005).
*

External links

* [http://physics.berkeley.edu/index.php?option=com_dept_management&act=people&Itemid=312&limitstart=0&task=view&id=15 George Smoot official website] at UC Berkeley
* [http://www.osti.gov/accomplishments/smoot.html Biography and Bibliographic Resources] , from the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, United States Department of Energy
* [http://aether.lbl.gov/www/personnel/Smoot-bio.html George Smoot biography] at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
* [http://aether.lbl.gov/www/personnel/smoot.html George Smoot curriculum vitae] at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
* [http://aether.lbl.gov/ Smoot Group Cosmology official website] at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
* [http://www.patentgenius.com/patent/4027494.html "Low gravity phase separator" U.S. Patent 4027494] at the United States Patent Office
* [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2006/press.html Nobel Prize announcement] at the Nobel Foundation
* [http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Research-Review/Magazine/1997-fall/village/mysteries.html Contemplating the birth of the universe]

Persondata
NAME=Smoot, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=George Fitzgerald Smoot III
SHORT DESCRIPTION=American astrophysicist and cosmologist
DATE OF BIRTH=February 20, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH=Yukon, Florida, United States
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=