The first ever scientific award dedicated to cosmology - the Cosmology Prize of the Peter Gruber Foundation - has been given to Allan Sandage of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and to James Peebles of Princeton University. The awards, which come with a cheque for $150,000, were announced at the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in Manchester, UK, earlier this week.
Sandage is best known for his efforts to pin down the values of the Hubble constant, the age of the Universe and its deceleration parameter through observations. Peebles is a theoretical cosmologist who has worked on problems ranging from light-element synthesis to the nature of dark matter. The awards will be presented at the Pontifical Academy of Science at the Vatican on November 9.
