| Buchalter Cosmology Prize | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | ground-breaking work in cosmology with the potential to produce a breakthrough advance in our understanding of how the Universe works |
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Ari Buchalter American Astronomical Society |
| First award | 2014 |
| Website | www |
The Buchalter Cosmology Prize, established in 2014, is a prestigious annual prize bestowed by Dr. Ari Buchalter.
Every year, three Buchalter Prizes are awarded in recognition of ground-breaking work in cosmology with the potential to produce a breakthrough advance in our understanding of how the Universe works, particularly by substantially extending or challenging currently-accepted models. The first, second, and third prize come with a prize money of $10,000, $5,000, and $2,500 respectively. The winners are typically announced in the January meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), placing it de facto among the annual AAS prizes.
Submissions and nominations are overseen by a panel composed of the chairman Dr. Ari Buchalter, an advisory board composed of two senior physicists, and a Judging Panel composed of three senior physicists. The composition of advisory board and Judging Panel is changed periodically. Current members of the advisory board are David Helfand and Marc Kamionkowski, whereas current members of the Judging Panel are Claudia de Rham, Matthew Johnson, and Justin Khoury.
The prize was conceived by Dr. Ari Buchalter, a former astrophysicist turned entrepreneur who earned his PhD from Columbia University in 1999 working with David Helfand, on the premise that there are fundamental gaps in our understanding of cosmology, and that several currently-accepted paradigms might be incomplete or incorrect. The prize was created to support the development of new boundary-pushing ideas or discoveries that have the potential to produce a breakthrough advance beyond our present understanding of the Universe.
Since its inception, the prize has been highly dominated by Perimeter Institute, whose researchers and associates featured for six consecutive years among the prize winners between 2014 and 2019: given the nature of the prize, this is a reflection of the cutting-edge research conducted at the institute.