WMAP and Planck collaborations received European Physical Society prize

Congratulations to the WMAP and Planck collaborations, which are awarded the 2019 Giuseppe and Vanna Cocconi Prize by the European Physical Society. The teams are recognized "for providing high-precision measurements of the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies, leading to detailed information on properties of the universe and tests of cosmological models and fundamental physics."

The teams received their award medals on Monday morning, July 10 during the EPS-HEPP Conference in Ghent, Belgium.

UBC WMAP members include PHAS professors Mark Halpern and Gary Hinshaw. Planck Collaboration members at UBC have included Professor Douglas Scott, postdoctoral fellows Yinzhe Ma, Adam Moss and James Zibin, and graduate students Dagoberto Contreras and Ali Narimani. A number of coop, graduate, and summer students, as well as PHAS technical staff members, also contributed to support WMAP and Planck efforts.

Congratulations to both teams! 

Fun fact: half of the previous winners of this prize went on to win a Nobel Prize!