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John Tonry

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa astronomer John Tonry has been named a recipient of the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, rather than slowing as had been long assumed. He shares the award with the other members of the High-Redshift Supernova Search Team and with members of the Supernova Cosmology Project.

In all, 50 astronomers played a role in the research and each will get a piece of the $3 million prize, which will be split between two research teams. This work had previously won the 2006 Shaw Prize in astronomy and the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics, but those prizes went only to the leaders of the two research teams, Saul Perlmutter, Adam Riess and Brian Schmidt.

Said Tonry after learning of the prize, “While it was a thrill to be part of a team whose work won a Nobel Prize and to travel to Sweden for the ceremony, being recognized directly by the Breakthrough Prize is particularly gratifying.”

The goal of the annual Breakthrough Prizes, given in fundamental physics, life sciences and mathematics, is to celebrate scientists and generate excitement about the pursuit of science as a career.

—By Louise Good

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