Saul Perlmutter

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Lore & Background

Saul Perlmutter was born on September 22, 1959, to Felice D. Perlmutter and Daniel D. Perlmutter, both now professors emeriti. He grew up in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia and attended Quaker schools: Greene Street Friends School for elementary grades and Germantown Friends School for grades seven through twelve. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard with an AB in physics in 1981 and earned his PhD in physics from Berkeley in 1986. His doctoral thesis, supervised by Richard A. Muller, was titled 'An Astrometric Search for a Stellar Companion to the Sun' and described an automated telescope to search for Nemesis candidates. Perlmutter credits Luis Alvarez, a 1968 Nobel laureate, with the idea for an automated supernova search. Perlmutter heads the Supernova Cosmology Project at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This team, along with the competing High-z Supernova Search Team led by Riess and Schmidt, found evidence of the accelerating expansion of the universe by observing Type Ia supernovae in the distant universe. Type Ia supernovae occur when a white dwarf gains enough mass to pass the Chandrasekhar limit, and because they are standard candles, researchers can infer distance from apparent luminosity. Comparing that to redshift revealed that distant supernovae were receding faster than expected from Hubble expansion alone, implying the universe's expansion has accelerated. The two teams' reports were published within weeks of each other, and their conclusions were accepted due to corroborating theories, reinvigorating research into dark energy. Perlmutter is also a lead investigator in the Supernova/Acceleration Probe satellite project and participates in the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project. Perlmutter has received numerous awards: the 2002 E. O. Lawrence Award in Physics, the 2003 California Scientist of the Year Award, the 2005 John Scott Award and Padua Prize, the 2006 Shaw Prize in Astronomy (shared with Riess and Schmidt), the 2006 Antonio Feltrinelli International Prize, the 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize (shared with Schmidt and the High-Z Team), the 2011 Albert Einstein Medal (with Riess), the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics (with Riess and Schmidt), and the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (with Schmidt, Riess, and their teams). He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2003 and received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 2014. A U.S. Department of Energy supercomputer named Perlmutter was dedicated in his honor in 2020.

Reader's Guide

Saul Perlmutter's significance lies in his leadership of the Supernova Cosmology Project, which provided the first compelling evidence that the universe's expansion is accelerating, a discovery that fundamentally changed cosmology. This finding, corroborated by the High-z Supernova Search Team, led to the widespread acceptance of dark energy as a major component of the universe and earned Perlmutter the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. His work has spurred extensive research into the nature of dark energy and the fate of the cosmos. Perlmutter's legacy also includes his role in developing automated supernova searches, inspired by Luis Alvarez, and his ongoing involvement in the Supernova/Acceleration Probe satellite mission to refine measurements of cosmic acceleration. His recognition by multiple prestigious awards—including the Shaw Prize, the Breakthrough Prize, and the Nobel Prize—and his appointment to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology since 2021 underscore his influence on both science and policy. The naming of a supercomputer after him in 2020 reflects his lasting impact on computational astrophysics.

Did You Know?

• Perlmutter's PhD thesis involved an automated telescope search for a stellar companion to the Sun, which he called Nemesis.
• He credits Luis Alvarez, a 1968 Nobel laureate, with the idea for an automated supernova search.
• Perlmutter shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Brian P. Schmidt and Adam Riess, receiving half of the SEK 10 million cash award.
• A U.S. Department of Energy supercomputer named Perlmutter was dedicated in his honor in 2020.
• Perlmutter has been a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology since 2021.