Adam Riess is a preeminent astrophysicist whose pioneering work has reshaped our understanding of cosmic evolution. He currently serves as the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins University and holds a position at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. Riess received his bachelor's degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992 and completed his PhD in astrophysics at Harvard University in 1996. His doctoral research focused on developing methods to utilize Type Ia supernovae as precise cosmological distance indicators, work that would later form the foundation for his most significant contributions to astrophysics.
Dr. Riess jointly led the High-z Supernova Search Team whose groundbreaking 1998 study provided the first evidence that the universe's expansion is accelerating rather than slowing down as previously theorized. This paradigm-shifting discovery, for which he shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Saul Perlmutter and Brian Schmidt, revealed the existence of dark energy as the dominant component of the universe. His development of the Multicolor Light Curve Shape Method enabled accurate correction for intervening dust and intrinsic variations in supernovae, establishing them as reliable cosmic yardsticks. Subsequent work with the Higher-Z SN Team using the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed the accelerating expansion by demonstrating the universe was previously decelerating before the acceleration phase began, providing compelling evidence for dark energy's existence.
As leader of the SHOES collaboration, Riess has achieved unprecedented precision in measuring the Hubble constant, revealing a significant tension between local measurements and predictions from the cosmic microwave background. His meticulous work continues to challenge and refine our cosmological models, making fundamental contributions to one of contemporary astrophysics' most pressing questions. A member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Riess has received numerous prestigious honors including the Nobel Prize, Shaw Prize, and MacArthur Fellowship. He remains at the forefront of cosmological research, utilizing advanced space telescope capabilities to probe the nature of dark energy and determine the ultimate fate of the universe through increasingly precise observational constraints.
