Brian Schmidt
Brian Schmidt shares the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Adam Riess and Saul Perlmutter for their discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe through observations of distant supernovae.
Professor Schmidt served as the 12th Vice-Chancellor and President of The Australian National University (ANU) from 2016 to 2024. He was an astrophysicist at the ANU Mount Stromlo Observatory and Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics before becoming Vice-Chancellor.
Professor Schmidt received undergraduate degrees in Astronomy and Physics from the University of Arizona in 1989, and completed his Astronomy Master’s degree (1992) and PhD (1993) from Harvard University. Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, The United States Academy of Science, and the Royal Society, he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2013.