Lyman A. Page Jr.
Lyman in 2005
Born	Lyman Alexander Page, Jr.[3] (1957-09-24)September 24, 1957 (age 68)[4]
Education	Bowdoin College (BA) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD)
Known for	Co-leading theWilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe project
Spouse	Elizabeth Olson[5]
Children	3
Awards	Marc Aaronson Memorial Lectureship Shaw Prize in Astronomy Gruber Prize in Cosmology Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics[1]
Scientific career
Fields	Astrophysics
Institutions	Princeton University Massachusetts Institute of Technology Bartol Research Foundation
Thesis	A measurement of the cosmic microwave background radiation anisotropy (1989)
Doctoral advisor	Stephan S. Meyer[2]

Lyman Alexander Page, Jr. (born September 24, 1957) is theJames S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor ofPhysics atPrinceton University. He is an expert in observationalcosmology and one of the original co-investigators for theWilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) project that made precise observations of theelectromagnetic radiation from theBig Bang, known ascosmic microwave background radiation.^[6]

Page was born inSan Francisco^[5] in 1957, and moved throughVirginia andNew Hampshire with his parents, eventually settling inMaine. His father was apediatrician and his mother anartist.^[7] He has a younger brother and sister. He became interested inphysics atBowdoin College,Brunswick, Maine, where he did hisundergraduate studies, after a course taught by Elroy O. LaCasce. He worked on theMach’s principle for a course project and was drawn tocosmology.^[5] Page graduated with aBA in Physics in 1978.^[3]

Page then became a research technician for 15 months at theBartol Research Foundation (nowBartol Research Institute), being stationed at theMcMurdo Station in theAntarctica and operating acosmic ray station.^[5][8] Returning to theUnited States, he bought and rebuilt asailboat, and started sailing around theEast Coast and theCaribbean for 2.5 years.^[8] He intermittently worked onshore incarpentry,rigging and other kinds of boat service, until he survived a storm nearVenezuela, after which he decided to pursuegraduate studies.^[5]Rainer Weiss from theDepartment of Physics of theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) agreed to let Page work in his lab, albeit without pay, so Page worked as carpenter in the day and at Weiss's lab at night.^[5] Eventually in 1983, Page began hisPhD study at the MIT under the supervision of Stephan S. Meyer, completing 6 years later.^[3]

After hisPhD, Page stayed at MIT as apostdoctoral researcher, and joined theDepartment of Physics ofPrinceton University in 1990, first as an instructor, and then promoted toassistant professor 1 year later andassociate professor in 1995.^[3] He became afull professor in 1998.^[3] Since 2005, he has been successively appointed to differentendowed professorships, including theHenry DeWolf Smyth Professor of Physics (2005-2014), theCyrus Fogg Brackett Chair of Physics (2014-2015) and theJames S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Physics (since 2015).^[9]

Between 2011 and 2017, Page was the chair, or Head, of the Department of Physics of Princeton University.^[3]

Page was the founding director of theAtacama Cosmology Telescope project from 2004 to 2014.^[10] Currently, he is a member of the executive board of theSimons Observatory,^[11] an Advisor for Gravity and the Extreme Universe at theCanadian Institute for Advanced Research,^[12] and serves on the board of directors of theResearch Corporation for Science Advancement.^[13]

Page's research centers aroundCosmic microwave background (CMB), which is theelectromagnetic radiation from theBig Bang. In 1991, Page, together withDavid Todd Wilkinson,Norman Jarosik and Edward J. Wollack, conceived of a satellite designed to specifically detect CMB.^[5] They eventually partnered withJohns Hopkins University,University of California, Los Angeles, theNASAGoddard Space Flight Center and other institutions,^[14] and the effort became theWilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) project, which was named in honor of Wilkinson.^[15] The satellite was launched in 2001. Since CMB comes from a time when theuniverse began, WMAP enables the study of the universe's early history, including itsexpansion, as well as itscomposition.^[16]

Page met his wife, Elizabeth Olson, during hisPhD years at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Olson is abiophysicsprofessor atColumbia University. They have three boys.^[5][17]

• Marc Aaronson Memorial Lectureship (2004)^[18]
• Member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences (2004)^[19]
• Member of theNational Academy of Sciences (2006)^[20]
• Shaw Prize in Astronomy (2010)^[21]
• Fellow of theAmerican Physical Society (2013)^[22]
• Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2015)^[23]
• Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2018) (withCharles L. Bennett,Gary Hinshaw,Norman Jarosik,David Spergel and theWMAP Science Team)^[24]
• Marcel Grossman Award,International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics (2018)^[25]

• American astronomers
• Bowdoin College alumni
• Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Fellows of the American Physical Society
• Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
• Living people
• 1957 births
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni
• Princeton University faculty

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from July 2022
• Use American English from July 2022
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Articles with hCards
• Pages using infobox person with deprecated parameters