Physics professor James Peebles and astronomy professor James Gunn have been awarded this year's Crafoord Prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced January 27th.
The professors will share the $500,000 award with Cambridge University professor Sir Martin Rees for their "contributions towards understanding the large-scale structure of the Universe," according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences website.
The prize was established in 1980 to support research in scientific fields not considered by the Nobel Prize, which the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences also awards. It is given in the field of astronomy once every four years.
Peebles has worked in the field of cosmology at the University since beginning his postdoctoral research in the early 1960s. He predicted important characteristics of cosmic microwave background radiation and is one of the main proponents of the Cold Dark Matter theory, the most popular theory regarding galaxy formation.
"I was pleased and delighted at the recognition," Peebles said. "The money is not the important thing, what really matters is the recognition of my peers. It's a fact of life, one gets these prizes when one doesn't need the money anymore." He added that "[the money] will be well spent."
Gunn has made contributions to the field of galaxy formation with his work on the properties of the gaseous medium between galaxies and the theoretical development of galaxies.
More recently, he has suggested important observational techniques for studying dark matter in the universe. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the most extensive project for three-dimensional mapping of the universe, is largely the result of his ideas. The project has already had a large impact in the fields of cosmology and astrophysics and aims to chart the properties of one million galaxies by its completion.
"I was very surprised and incredibly pleased," Gunn said of receiving the prize. "I have no idea what I will do with the money, but I am sure Uncle Sam will take a fair piece of it."
Gunn is known by his peers for his extensive knowledge of many different fields in astrophysics.
"I remember a man walking into the astrophysics department at Princeton and being impressed with the level of astronomy, saying we knew 'everything about everything,'" professor of astrophysical sciences Michael Strauss said. "But after talking to Gunn, he was even more impressed, and he said that this man knew 'everything about everything about everything' concerning astronomy. I will never forget that."
Strauss also said that Peebles' work is the most important of its kind. "He invented large chunks of what we now understand to be modern cosmology," he said.
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