BY TALLY SHARMA

In print | October 5, 2006

Last Tuesday, Swarthmore alumnus John C. Mather ’68 was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physics, along with George F. Smoot of the University of California at Berkeley. According to Nobelprize.org, the two were presented with this honor “for their discovery of the black body form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation, or work that helped cement the big-bang theory of the universe using the COBE satellite.”

Mather graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore and earned his Ph.D. in Physics at University of California at Berkeley in 1974. According to the NASA Web site, his other awards include the National Air and Space Museum Trophy in 1991, the George W. Goddard Award in 2005 and the Cosmology Prize with the COBE Team in 2006. He currently works as a Senior Astrophysicist, Goddard Fellow and a Senior Project Scientist with the James Webb Space Telescope for NASA.

Mather was not available for an interview at press time.

In a document entitled “Information for the Public” provided by Nobelprize.org, Mather was described as “scientists, engineers and others) were involved.”

Associate Professor of Astronomy David Cohen said that Mather and Smoot’s research incorporated preexisting cosmological theories with their original findings. “The big-bang theory of the origins of the universe provided that the universe was hot,” he said. “Because hot things emit more light than cool things, there should be a glow coming from the early universe from when it was hot and expanding if the big-bang theory is right.”

Mather and Smoot did, in fact, investigate that “glow.” Although Cosmic Background Radiation, or CBR, was only first detected in 1965, it wasn’t until later that significant efforts were made to understand its framework.

“The first real attempts to measure its properties were done by Mather and Smoot,” Cohen said. “They verified that the spectrum of the CBR has the predicted shape, which is consistent with the big-bang theory.”

In addition, Mather and Smoot determined the anisotropy or the “variety of composition” of CBR. “The brightness of CBR is not the same in certain areas,” Cohen said. “Today, we have what is referred to colloquially as a ‘lumpy’ universe; there should be signs in CBR reflecting the transition from smooth to lumpy. This is what they found — evidence of the formation of lumpiness.”

Associate Professor of Astronomy Eric Jensen said that Mather’s studies in and of themselves were more than worthy of tribute. “I think it’s really cool,” he said. “Aside from him having anything to do with Swarthmore, it’s a very important discovery. And then there’s the cool fact that he has this connection with Swarthmore. I was fortunate enough to meet him a few years ago, and he’s a very nice, modest guy.”

Alexandra Zelaski ‘09, a physics major, said she thought Mather’s accomplishments would gain Swarthmore some recognition as well. “It’s pretty amazing that someone from Swat achieved this level of distinction; it’s the highest honor you can receive,” she said. “I’m learning the same techniques as he did, so maybe that bodes well for me in the future. It’s exciting to be able to say that he went to my school.”

Cohen was also excited at the warranted acknowledgment of Mather’s diligent work. “I think that all my students should get back to work so that one of them can be the second alum from the department to receive a Nobel Prize.”

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