Jim Peebles

For the American football player, see Jim Peebles (American football).

Phillip James Edwin Peebles
Born	(1935-04-25) April 25, 1935 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Fields	Theoretical physics Physical cosmology
Institutions	Princeton University
Alma mater	University of Manitoba (BSc) Princeton University (PhD)
Known for	Cosmic microwave background radiation
Notable awards	Eddington Medal (1981) Heineman Prize (1982) Bruce Medal (1995) Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1998) Gruber Prize (2000) Harvey Prize (2001) Shaw Prize (2004) Crafoord Prize (2005) Dirac Medal (2013)

Phillip James Edwin Peebles (born April 25, 1935) is a Canadian-American physicist and theoretical cosmologist who is currently the Albert Einstein Professor Emeritus of Science at Princeton University. Peebles was born in Winnipeg and completed his bachelor's degree at the University of Manitoba. He left Manitoba in the fall of 1958 to attend Princeton University, where he completed his doctorate.

Academic career

Peebles has made many important contributions to the big bang model. With Robert Dicke and others (nearly two decades after George Gamov, Ralph A. Alpher and Robert C. Herman), he predicted the cosmic microwave background radiation. Along with making major contributions to big bang nucleosynthesis, dark matter and dark energy, he has contributed to the theory of structure formation. Long before it was considered a serious, quantitative branch of physics, Peebles was studying physical cosmology and has done much to establish its respectability.

Peebles has a long record of innovative idea, introducing the basic idea, which were extensively studied latter by others scientists. For instance, in 1987, proposed the primordial isocurvature baryon model for the development of the early universe.

Honours

Awards

• Eddington Medal (1981)
• Heineman Prize (1982)
• Henry Norris Russell Lectureship (1993)
• Bruce Medal (1995)
• Oskar Klein Medal (1997)
• Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1998)
• Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2000), with Allan Sandage
• Harvey Prize (2001)
• Shaw Prize (2004)
• Crafoord Prize with James E. Gunn and Martin Rees (2005)
• Hitchcock Professorship (2006)
• Dirac Medal (2013)

Named after him

• Asteroid 18242 Peebles

References

• arXiv:astro-ph/0207347 B. Ratra and P. J. E. Peebles, "The cosmological constant and dark energy", Rev. Mod. Phys. 75, 559 (2003).
• arXiv:astro-ph/9712020 M. Fukugita, C. J. Hogan and P. J. E. Peebles, "The cosmic baryon budget", Astrophys. J. '503, 518 (1998).
• P. J. E. Peebles, Principles of Physical Cosmology (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1993).
• B. Ratra and P. J. E. Peebles, "Cosmology with a time-variable cosmological 'constant'", Astrophys. J. 325, L17 (1988).
• B. Ratra and P. J. E. Peebles, "Cosmological consequences of a rolling homogeneous scalar field", Phys. Rev. D 37, 3406 (1988).
• M. Davis and P. J. E. Peebles, "A survey of galaxy redshifts. V – The two-point position and velocity correlations", Astrophys. J. 267, 465 (1983).
• P. J. E. Peebles, "Large-scale background temperature and mass fluctuations due to scale-invariant primeval perturbations", Astrophys. J. 263, L1 (1982).
• P. J. E. Peebles, The large-scale structure of the universe (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1980).
• E. J. Groth and P. J. E. Peebles, "Statistical Analysis Of Catalogs Of Extragalactic Objects. 7. Two And Three Point Correlation Functions For The High-Resolution Shane-Wirtanen Catalog Of Galaxies", Astrophys. J. 217, 385 (1977).
• J. P. Ostriker and P. J. E. Peebles, "A Numerical Study of the Stability of Flattened Galaxies: or, can Cold Galaxies Survive?", Astrophys. J. 186, 467 (1973).
• P. J. E. Peebles, Physical Cosmology, (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1971).
• P. J. E. Peebles and J. T. Yu, "Primeval adiabatic perturbation in an expanding universe", Astrophys. J. 162, 815 (1970).
• P. J. E. Peebles, "Origin of the Angular Momentum of Galaxies", Astrophys. J. 155, 393 (1969).
• P. J. E. Peebles and R. H. Dicke, "Origin of the Globular Star Clusters", Astrophys. J. 154, 891 (1968).
• P. J. E. Peebles, "Primordial Helium Abundance and the Primordial Fireball. II", Astrophys. J. 146, 542 (1966).
• P. J. E. Peebles, “Primordial Helium Abundance and the Primordial Fireball. I", Phys. Rev. Lett. 16, 410 (1966).
• R. H. Dicke, P. J. E. Peebles, P. G. Roll and D. T. Wilkinson, "Cosmic Black-Body Radiation", Astrophys. J. 142, 414 (1965).

External links

• Bruce Medalists
• Personal Web page at Princeton University (Photos)
• Oral History interview transcript with Jim Peebles April 4 and 5, 2002, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives