Perlmutter spent his childhood in theMount Airy neighborhood ofPhiladelphia. He went to school in nearbyGermantown; firstGreene Street Friends School for the elementary grades, followed byGermantown Friends School for grades 7 through 12.[7] He graduated with an AB in physics fromHarvardmagna cum laude in 1981 and received his PhD in physics fromBerkeley in 1986. Perlmutter's PhD thesis, titled "An Astrometric Search for a Stellar Companion to the Sun" and supervised byRichard A. Muller,[8] described the development and use of an automated telescope to search forNemesis candidates.[1] At the same time, he was using this telescope to search for Nemesis andsupernovae, which would lead him to his award-winning work in cosmology.[9] Perlmutter attributes the idea for an automated supernova search toLuis Alvarez, a 1968Nobel laureate, who shared his idea with Perlmutter's research adviser.[9]
Perlmutter heads theSupernova Cosmology Project at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It was this team along with the competingHigh-z Supernova Search Team led by Riess and Schmidt, which found evidence of theaccelerating expansion of the universe based on observingType Ia supernova in the distant universe. Type Ia supernova occurs whenever awhite dwarf star gains enough additional mass to pass above theChandrasekhar limit, usually by stealing additional mass from acompanion star. Since all Type Ia supernovae are believed to occur in essentially the same way, they form astandard candle whose intrinsicluminosity can be assumed to be approximately the same in all cases. By measuring the apparent luminosity of the explosion from Earth, researchers can then infer the distance to supernova. Comparing this inferred distance to the apparentredshift of the explosion allows the observer to measure both the distance and relative velocity of the supernova.
Perlmutter in 2024
The Supernova Cosmology Project concluded that these distant supernovae were receding more quickly than would be expected due to theHubble expansion alone, and, by inference, the expansion of the universe must have been accelerated over the billions of years since the supernovae occurred. The High-z Team also came to a similar conclusion. The two teams' reports were published within weeks of each other, and their conclusions were readily accepted by the scientific community due to corroborating theories.[10] This conclusion has subsequently been supported by other lines of evidence. These findings reinvigorated research into the nature of the universe, and especially into the role ofdark energy.[10] For this work Perlmutter was awarded the2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, shared jointly with Riess and Schmidt.[10]
Perlmutter is also a lead investigator in theSupernova/Acceleration Probe project, which aims to build a satellite dedicated to finding and studying more supernovae in the distant universe. The goal is to more precisely determine the rate at which the universe has been accelerating. He is also a participant in theBerkeley Earth Surface Temperature project, which aims to increase our understanding of recentglobal warming through improved analyses of climate data.
Perlmutter is a professor and currently teaches at UC Berkeley.
Perlmutter and his team shared the 2007Gruber Cosmology Prize (a $500,000 award) with Schmidt and the High-Z Team for discovering the accelerating expansion of the universe. In 2010, Perlmutter was named a Miller Senior Fellow of theMiller Institute at theUniversity of California Berkeley. In 2011, Perlmutter and Riess were named co-recipients of theAlbert Einstein Medal.
Perlmutter shared the2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Riess and Schmidt.[11] The Nobel Prize includes aSEK 10 million cash award (approximately US$1.5 million). Perlmutter received one-half of the cash prize, while Riess and Schmidt shared the other half.[11]
Reference to Saul Perlmutter was made on the CBS television comedy seriesThe Big Bang Theory during the 2011 episode "The Speckerman Recurrence". In the episode, the characterSheldon Cooper watches the Nobel award ceremony on his laptop, and jealously berates Perlmutter: "Look at Dr. Saul Perlmutter up there, clutching that Nobel prize. What's the matter Saul, you afraid somebody's going to steal it? Like you stole Einstein's cosmological constant?" Then later: "Oh, now Perlmutter's shaking the King's hand. Yeah, check for your watch, Gustaf, he might have lifted it."
Perlmutter was also referenced in the 2011 episode ofThe Big Bang Theory, "The Rhinitis Revelation". In a conversation with his mother, Sheldon says, "I’ve got a treat for us tomorrow, Mom. I’m taking you to see Saul Perlmutter give a lecture about his Nobel Prize-winning work in cosmology. And the best part is, at the Q and A afterward, I’ve worked up a couple of Q’s that will stump his sorry A." Later in the episode, Sheldon criticises the lecture and questions the decision to award Perlmutter a Nobel Prize.
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