Penzias was born inMunich, Germany, the son of Justine (née Eisenreich) and Karl Penzias, who ran a leather business.[1] His grandparents had come to Munich fromPoland and were among the leaders of theReichenbachstrasse synagogue. At age six, he and his brother Gunther were among theJewish children evacuated to Britain as part of theKindertransport rescue operation.[2][3][4] Later, his parents also fledNazi Germany, first for the UK, and then for the US, and the family settled inthe Bronx, New York City, New York, in 1940.[4][5] In 1946, Penziasbecame a US citizen.[6]
Penzias' involvement with radar in the Signal Corps led to a research assistantship in theColumbia University Radiation Laboratory, which was then heavily involved inmicrowave physics. Penzias worked underCharles H. Townes, who later invented themaser.[6] Penzias enrolled as a graduate student at Columbia University in 1956, where he earned a master's degree and a PhD in physics, the latter in 1962.[8]
Thereafter, atBell Labs inHolmdel Township, New Jersey, he and Robert Woodrow Wilson worked on ultra-sensitive cryogenic microwave receivers, intended for radio astronomy observations. In 1964, on building their most sensitiveantenna/receiver system, the pair encountered radio noise that they could not explain.[9] It was far less energetic than the radiation given off by theMilky Way, and it wasisotropic, so they assumed their instrument was subject to interference by terrestrial sources. They tried, and then rejected, the hypothesis that the radio noise emanated from New York City. An examination of the microwavehorn antenna showed it was full of bat and pigeon droppings, which Penzias described as "whitedielectric material". After the pair removed the dung buildup the noise remained. Having rejected all sources of interference, Penzias contactedRobert H. Dicke, who suggested it might be the background radiation predicted by some cosmological theories. The pair agreed with Dicke to publish side-by-side letters in the Astrophysical Journal, with Penzias and Wilson describing their observations[10] and Dicke suggesting the interpretation as thecosmic microwave background (CMB), the radio remnant of theBig Bang.[5][11] This proved to be landmark evidence for the Big Bang and provided substantial confirmation for predictions made byRalph Asher Alpher,Robert Herman andGeorge Gamow in the 1940s and 1950s.
Penzias and Wilson, standing under the 15 m (49 ft 3 in)Holmdel Horn Antenna in New Jersey that brought their most notable discovery
On April 26, 2019, the Nürnberger Astronomische Gesellschaft e.V. (NAG) inaugurated the 3 m (10 ft)radio telescope at the Regiomontanus-Sternwarte, thepublic observatory ofNuremberg, and dedicated this instrument to Arno Penzias.[17]
On September 11, 2023, the Radio Club of America said announced it had named an award, the Dr. Arno A. Penzias Award for Contributions to Basic Research in the Radio Sciences, to recognize his significant contributions to basic research involvingradio frequency and related subjects. The club also announced that the first recipient of the award would be named in 2024.[18]
In 1954, Penzias married Anne Barras; the couple had three children, David, Mindy, and Laurie, before they divorced.[2] Penzias was a resident ofHighland Park, New Jersey, in the 1990s.[19]
In 1996, he marriedSilicon Valley executive Sherry Levit, becoming stepfather to her son Carson and daughter Victoria.[4][20]
Penzias died from complications ofAlzheimer's disease at an assisted living facility in San Francisco, on January 22, 2024, at age 90.[4]
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