Iranian astrophysicist Dr. Niyayesh Afshordi won the third prize in the 2015 Buchalter Cosmology Prize jointly with Dr. Elliot Nelson for their scholarly findings on “cosmological bounds.”
The prize was awarded to Afshordi, associate professor at the University of Waterloo and associate faculty at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Canada, and Nelson of the US Pennsylvania State University, for their work entitled “Cosmological Non-Constant Problem: Cosmological Bounds on TeV-Scale Physics and Beyond” and recognized by the judging panel as “an intriguing proposition.”
Afshordi graduated from Tehran’s Allameh Helli High School and later from Sharif University of Technology (1996-1999) in physics. He completed his PhD at Princeton University Observatory in the United States in 2004, reports ISNA.
His other awards include Professor M. K. Vainu Bappu Gold Medal from the Astronomical Society of India, Early Researcher Award from Ministry of Research and Innovation, Province of Ontario, Canada and Discovery Accelerator Supplement from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), 2010.
The Buchalter Cosmology Prize is an annual prize that seeks to stimulate ground-breaking theoretical, observational, or experimental work in cosmology. It was created to support the development of new theories, observations, or methods, that can help illuminate the puzzle of cosmic expansion from first principles. The prize comprises cash awards for the first, second and third winners ($10,000, $5,000 and $2,500 respectively).
Dr. Buchalter, a former astrophysicist turned entrepreneur, was inspired to create the prize in 2014 based on his own research and experience in cosmology, and the belief that fundamental breakthroughs in cosmology still lie ahead, but may require altering, challenging, or even breaking some currently-accepted paradigms. “The 2015 prize winners represent the kind of innovative thinking that can significantly advance our understanding of the universe,” he said.
The prestigious judging panel for the prize is comprised of leading theoretical physicists noted for their work in cosmology, including Dr. Sean Carroll of the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Robert Caldwell of Dartmouth College, and Dr. Joao Magueijo of Imperial College London.
