The IAU and the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation
1) Gruber Cosmology Prize
With the aim to promote the science of cosmology and other branches of astronomy, the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation (PPGF) has created the Gruber Cosmology Prize .
Mission statement: The Cosmology Prize honors a leading cosmologist, astronomer, astrophysicist or scientific philosopher for theoretical, analytical, conceptual or observational discoveries leading to fundamental advances in our understanding of the Universe.
The IAU Executive Committee (EC) recognizes this contribution to our science and shares the desire of the Gruber Foundation to give this distinction the highest possible scientific standing and international character. Accordingly, at its 73rd meeting in Manchester, UK, in August 2000, the IAU EC agreed to collaborate with the PPGF in the nomination of candidates and the selection of recipients, effective as of 1 January 2001.
The Cosmology Prize of the Gruber Foundation is awarded annually to one or more scientists of any nationality working in the fields of astronomy, physics, mathematics, and philosophy of science, for scientific advances in our understanding of the Universe and how we perceive it. The Cosmology Prize recipients are selected by an international Advisory Board of seven members, nominated by the IAU and three other international scientific unions in fields relevant to cosmology. The Cosmology Prize consists of a gold medal and a cash prize of, as of 2008, US$ 500,000.
2) Gruber Cosmology Prize recipients
| 2008 | J. Richard Bond (Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Cosmology and Gravity Program) |
| 2007 | Saul Perlmutter and Brian P. Schmidt and their teams: the Supernova Cosmology Project and the High-z Supernova Search Team (Australia, Chile, France, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA) |
| 2006 | John C. Mather (Greenbelt, MD, USA) and the Cosmic Background Explorer Team |
| 2005 | James E. Gunn (Princeton, NJ, USA) |
| 2004 | Alan Guth (Cambridge, MA, USA) and Andrei Linde (Stanford, CA, USA) |
| 2003 | Rasjid A. Sunyaev (Moscow, Russian Federation; and Garching, Germany) |
| 2002 | Vera C. Rubin (Washington, DC, USA) |
| 2001 | Martin J. Rees (Cambridge, UK) |
| 2000 | Allan R. Sandage (Pasadena, CA, USA) and James E. Peebles (Princeton, NJ, USA) |
3) Publicity
The Gruber Cosmology Prize is announced jointly by the PPGF and the IAU, at a venue which has a tradition in astronomy. In the year of an IAU General Assembly, the Cosmology Prize is announced during the Opening Ceremony of that General Assembly.
4) Nominations
Nominations for the Gruber Cosmology Prize 2009 will open on 2 April 2008, and will close on 15 December 2008. Nominations should follow the instructions given in :
http://www.gruberprizes.org/Nominations/Cosmology.php
