John C. Mather

Physics

John Mather, an astrophysicist, shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in physics with George F. Smoot "for their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation.” John Mather knew he was interested in math and science at a young age. His interests led him to study physics. As a graduate student he decided to work on the cosmic microwave background for his thesis project. Since then he has been working for NASA on various projects. One project COBE (COsmic Background Explorer), which measured the cosmic microwave background radiation and the cosmic infrared background radiation, provided conclusive evidence of the big bang theory.

John C. Mather