Smoot, George (1945– )

US astrophysicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 with US cosmologist John C Mather for their contributions to discovering cosmic background radiation, and in particular with measuring fluctuations in the temperature of the radiation.

Smoot was the project leader for the differential microwave radiometers, one of the three types of instrument aboard the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite that detected ‘ripples’ in the background radiation in 1992, thought to trace back to the formation of galaxies.

Smoot's press release gave the impression that the COBE work had been completed mainly by himself and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Smoot had been a major figure in the project but he was not the main driving force (this was John Mather) and his press release violated an agreement signed by all the COBE team members. Eventually Smoot produced a written apology, though his is the name that continues to be associated with COBE.

Smoot was born in Yukon, Florida. He was awarded his PhD in particle physics by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 1970. He is currently a physics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 2003 was awarded the Albert Einstein Medal at the University of Berne, Switzerland.