Adam Riess

Adam Guy Riess (born December 16, 1969) is an

American astrophysicist and Bloomberg Distinguished Adam Riess
Professor at Johns Hopkins University and the Space
Telescope Science Institute. He is known for his
research in using supernovae as cosmological probes.
Riess shared both the 2006 Shaw Prize in Astronomy
and the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Saul
Perlmutter and Brian P. Schmidt for providing
evidence that the expansion of the universe is
accelerating.

Family
Riess was born in Washington, D.C., one of three
children.[2][3] He grew up in Warren, New Jersey,
where his father (Naval engineer Michael Riess)
owned a frozen-foods distribution company, Bistro
Riess in 2011
International, and his mother (Doris Riess) worked as a
Born Adam Guy Riess
clinical psychologist.[4] Michael Riess (1931–2007)
December 16, 1969
immigrated to the United States with his parents
Washington, D.C., U.S.
(journalist, war correspondent and author Curt Martin
Riess and Ilse Posnansky)[5] from Germany on the ship Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of
SS Europa (1928) in 1936.[6] Riess is by birth Technology,
Jewish.[7] Adam Riess has two sisters – Gail Saltz, a Harvard University
psychiatrist, and Holly Hagerman, an artist. Riess Known for Accelerating universe / dark
married Nancy Joy Schondorf in 1998. energy, Hubble constant
Spouse Nancy Joy Schondorf (m. 1998)
Awards Robert J. Trumpler Award
Education (1999)[1]
Helen B. Warner Prize for
He attended Watchung Hills Regional High School,
Astronomy (2002)
graduating in the class of 1988.[8] He also attended the
Sackler Prize for Physics
prestigious New Jersey Governor's School in the
(2004)[1]
Sciences in 1987. Riess then graduated Phi Beta Kappa
Shaw Prize in Astronomy (2006)
from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in
Nobel Prize in Physics (2011)
1992 where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta
Albert Einstein Medal (2011)
fraternity. He received his PhD from Harvard Breakthrough Prize in
University in 1996; it resulted in measurements of over Fundamental Physics (2015)
twenty new Type Ia supernovae and a method to utilize
Scientific career
Type Ia supernovae as accurate distance indicators by
correcting for intervening dust and intrinsic Fields Physics
inhomogeneities. Riess's PhD thesis was supervised by Institutions University of California, Berkeley
Robert Kirshner and William H. Press and won the
Johns Hopkins University /
Robert J. Trumpler Award in 1999 for PhD theses of
Space Telescope Science
unusual importance to astronomy.[9]
Institute

Thesis Type Ia Supernova Multicolor

Research Light Curve Shapes (https://ww
w.proquest.com/docview/304241
Riess was a Miller Fellow at the University of 703/) (1996)
California, Berkeley, from 1996 through 1999, during Doctoral Robert Kirshner, William H.
which period his first seminal paper on the discovery advisor Press
of an accelerating universe was published. [10] In 1999,
he moved to the Space Telescope Science Institute and took up a position at Johns Hopkins University in
2006. He also sits on the selection committee for the Astronomy award given under the auspices of the
Shaw Prize. In July 2016, Riess was named a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at Johns Hopkins
University for his accomplishments as an interdisciplinary researcher and excellence in teaching the next
generation of scholars.[10] The Bloomberg Distinguished Professorships were established in 2013 by a
gift from Michael Bloomberg.[11]

Riess jointly led the study with Brian Schmidt in 1998 for the High-z Supernova Search Team which first
reported evidence that the universe's expansion rate is accelerating through monitoring of Type Ia
supernovae. The team's observations were contrary to the existing theory that the expansion of the
universe was slowing down; instead, by monitoring the color shifts in the light from supernovae from
Earth, they discovered that these billion-year old novae were still accelerating.[12] This result was also
found nearly simultaneously by the Supernova Cosmology Project, led by Saul Perlmutter.[12] The
corroborating evidence between the two competing studies led to the acceptance of the accelerating
universe theory, and initiated new research to understand the nature of the universe, such as the existence
of dark energy.[12] The discovery of the accelerating universe was named 'Breakthrough of the Year' by
Science magazine in 1998,[13] and Riess was jointly awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics along with
Schmidt and Perlmutter for their groundbreaking work.[12]

From 2002 to 2007 Riess led the Higher-Z SN Team which used the Hubble Space Telescope to find
dozens of type Ia supernovae at z>1, first demonstrating that the expansion of the Universe was
decelerating before it began accelerating and ruling out astrophysical contamination of SN Ia.[14]

Riess is also known for his efforts to measure the local value of the Hubble constant while leading the
SH0ES Team since 2005 with measurements that approach 1% precision and which indicate a
discrepancy with the model-based prediction from the CMB, a problem widely known in cosmology as
the Hubble tension.[15][16]

Awards and honors

Riess received the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's Robert J. Trumpler Award in 1999 and Harvard
University's Bok Prize in 2001. He won the American Astronomical Society's Helen B. Warner Prize in
2003 and the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in Physics in 2004 for the discovery of cosmic
acceleration.[17]

In 2006, he shared the $1 million Shaw Prize in Astronomy with

Saul Perlmutter and Brian P. Schmidt for contributions to the
discovery of the acceleration of the universe.[18]

Schmidt and all the members of the High-Z Team (as defined by
the co-authors of Riess et al. 1998) shared the 2007 Gruber
Cosmology Prize, a $500,000 award, with the Supernova
Cosmology Project (the set defined by the co-authors of Saul Perlmutter, Riess, and Brian P.
Perlmutter et al. 1999) for their discovery of the accelerating Schmidt being awarded the 2006
Shaw Prize in Astronomy. The trio
expansion of the universe. Riess was the winner of MacArthur
would later be awarded the 2011
"Genius" Grant in 2008. He was also elected in 2009 to the Nobel Prize in Physics.
National Academy of Sciences.[19]

Along with Perlmutter and Schmidt, he was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for his
contributions to the discovery of the acceleration of the expansion of the universe.[18]

Riess, along with Brian P. Schmidt, and the High-Z Supernova Search Team shared in the 2015
Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.[20]

In 2012, Riess received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[21]

In 2020, Riess was made fellow of the American Astronomical Society.[22]

Media appearances
Riess participated on the NPR radio quiz program Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! in 2011.[23]

Publications
Riess has more than 123,000 citations in Google Scholar and an h-index of 124. His most cited work,
"Observational evidence from supernovae for an accelerating universe and a cosmological constant," has
been cited over 25,000 times.[24] Riess has been among the top 1% most cited in the world for subject
field and year of publication in the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers reports for multiple years,
including 2014-2016 and 2020-2023.[25][26]

Google Scholar citations (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=geafuP0AAAAJ&hl=en)

Highly cited articles (more than 1900 citations)

1998 with V Filippenko, P Challis, A Clocchiatti, A Diercks, et al., Observational evidence
from supernovae for an accelerating universe and a cosmological constant, in: The
Astronomical Journal. Vol. 116, nº 3; 1009.
2009 with KN Abazajian, JK Adelman-McCarthy, MA Agüeros, SS Allam, CA Prieto, et al.,
The seventh data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, in: The Astrophysical Journal
Supplement Series. Vol. 182, nº 2; 543.
 2004 with LG Strolger, J Tonry, S Casertano, HC Ferguson, B Mobasher, et al., Type Ia
supernova discoveries at z> 1 from the Hubble Space Telescope: Evidence for past
deceleration and constraints on dark energy evolution, in: The Astrophysical Journal. Vol.
607, nº 2; 665.
2007 with JK Adelman-McCarthy, MA Agüeros, SS Allam, KSJ Anderson, et al., The fifth
data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, in: The Astrophysical Journal Supplement
Series. Vol. 172, nº 2; 634.
2003 with JL Tonry, BP Schmidt, B Barris, P Candia, P Challis, A Clocchiatti, AL Coil, et al.,
Cosmological results from high-z supernovae, in: The Astrophysical Journal. Vol. 594, nº 1;
1.
2007 with LG Strolger, S Casertano, HC Ferguson, B Mobasher, B Gold, et al., New Hubble
space telescope discoveries of type Ia supernovae at z≥ 1: narrowing constraints on the
early behavior of dark energy, in: The Astrophysical Journal. Vol. 659, nº 1; 98.
1998 with BP Schmidt, NB Suntzeff, MM Phillips, RA Schommer, A Clocchiatti, et al., The
high-Z supernova search: measuring cosmic deceleration and global curvature of the
universe using type Ia supernovae, in: The Astrophysical Journal. Vol. 507, nº 1; 46.

See also
Cosmological constant
Dark energy
List of Jewish Nobel laureates

References
1. Jain, Chelsi. "Awards List extended using a reliable source" (https://www.stsci.edu/~ariess/A
wards.htm).
2. "WEDDINGS; Nancy Schondorf And Adam Riess" (https://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/11/styl
e/weddings-nancy-schondorf-and-adam-riess.html). The New York Times. January 11,
1998.
3. Wedding: Drs. Gail Michele Riess and Leonard Bruce Saltz (https://www.nytimes.com/1989/
06/18/style/dr-gail-riess-is-married.html). Nytimes.com (June 18, 1989). Retrieved on April 2,
2012.
4. Chasing the Great Beyond (http://www.jhu.edu/jhumag/0208web/riess.html). Jhu.edu
(January 12, 1998). Retrieved on April 2, 2012.
5. Saxon, Wolfgang (May 21, 1993). "Curt Riess, Author And Journalist, 90; Expert on Nazi
Era" (https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/21/obituaries/curt-riess-author-and-journalist-90-exp
ert-on-nazi-era.html). The New York Times.
6. Obituary: Michael Riess (https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E07E3DD163AF
932A25753C1A9619C8B63). New York Times (October 11, 2007). Retrieved on April 2,
2012.
7. "Jewish Insider's Daily Kickoff: December 15, 2017" (http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/jewis
h-insider-s-daily-kickoff-december-15-2017-1.5628773). Haaretz.
8. Spivey, Mark. "Watchung Hills graduate shares Nobel Prize in physics" (http://arquivo.pt/way
back/20160523200519/http://m.dailyrecord.com/topnews/article?a=2011310040033&f=847),
Daily Record (Morristown), October 4, 2011. Accessed October 5, 2011. "Riess, who grew
up in Warren, gave a shout-out to retired teacher Jeff Charney, saying his interest in science
first was piqued at Watchung Hills."
 9. Panek, Richard (2011). The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to
Discover the Rest of Reality. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-618-98244-8.,
pg. 174
10. Messersmith, Julie. "Nobel laureate Adam Riess named 22nd Bloomberg Distinguished
Professor at Johns Hopkins" (http://hub.jhu.edu/2016/07/08/adam-riess-bloomberg-distingui
shed-professor), JHU Hub, Baltimore, 8 July 2016. Retrieved on 13 July 2016.
11. "Michael R. Bloomberg Commits $350 Million to Johns Hopkins for Transformational
Academic Initiative 2013" (http://releases.jhu.edu/2013/01/26/michael-r-bloomberg-commits-
350-million-to-johns-hopkins/).
12. Palmer, Jason (October 4, 2011). "Nobel physics prize honours accelerating Universe find"
(https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15165371). BBC. Retrieved October 5,
2011.
13. Bloom, Floyd E. (December 18, 1998). "Breakthroughs 1998" (https://www.science.org/doi/1
0.1126/science.282.5397.2193). Science. 282 (5397): 2193. Bibcode:1998Sci...282.2193B
(https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1998Sci...282.2193B).
doi:10.1126/science.282.5397.2193 (https://doi.org/10.1126%2Fscience.282.5397.2193).
S2CID 220092189 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:220092189). Retrieved
November 27, 2020.
14. Type Ia Supernova Discoveries at z > 1 from the Hubble Space Telescope (https://ui.adsab
s.harvard.edu/abs/2004ApJ...607..665R/abstract)
15. A 2.4% Determination of the Local Value of the Hubble Constant (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.e
du/abs/2016ApJ...826...56R/abstract)
16. A Comprehensive Measurement of the Local Value of the Hubble Constant with 1 km s-1
Mpc-1 Uncertainty from the Hubble Space Telescope and the SH0ES Team (https://ui.adsab
s.harvard.edu/abs/2022ApJ...934L...7R/abstract)
17. "Past Laureates of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler International Prize in Physics" (https://
english.tau.ac.il/sackler_prize_in_physics_past_laureates). Tel Aviv University. September
5, 2012. Retrieved May 28, 2023.
18. "Nobel physics prize honours accelerating Universe find" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scien
ce-environment-15165371). BBC News. October 4, 2011.
19. Newsroom (http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=04282
009). National-Academies.org (April 28, 2009). Retrieved on April 2, 2012.
20. "Breakthrough Prize – Fundamental Physics Breakthrough Prize Laureates – Adam Riess
and the High-z Supernova Search Team" (https://breakthroughprize.org/Laureates/1/L73).
Breakthrough Prize. Retrieved May 28, 2023.
21. "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement" (https://achievement.or
g/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration). www.achievement.org. American
Academy of Achievement.
22. "Four Johns Hopkins faculty members named American Astronomical Society fellows" (http
s://hub.jhu.edu/2020/03/04/american-astronomical-society-fellows/). The Hub. Johns
Hopkins University. March 4, 2020. Retrieved March 6, 2020.
23. Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! (https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19910268
0) from NPR
24. "Adam Riess" (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=geafuP0AAAAJ&hl=en).
scholar.google.com. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
25. "13 Johns Hopkins scientists among most cited researchers in the world" (https://hub.jhu.ed
u/2016/11/18/highly-cited-researchers/). The Hub. November 18, 2016. Retrieved May 19,
2021.
26. "Adam G. Riess" (https://clarivate.com/webofsciencegroup/citation-laureates/resources/ada
m-g-riess/). Web of Science Group. September 21, 2020. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
External links
Dark Energy Co-Discoverer Adam Riess Shares Shaw Prize in Astronomy for 2006 (http://h
ubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2006/27/)
Adam Riess (https://www.nobelprize.org/laureate/866) on Nobelprize.org
Nobel Prize in Physics 2011 Announcement (https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physic
s/laureates/2011/press.html)
Chasing the Great Beyond (http://www.jhu.edu/jhumag/0208web/riess.html)

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