2012 Gruber Cosmology Prize

Building on his own pioneering contributions to the study of the early universe, Charles L. Bennett, along with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe team, used observations of the so-called “echo of the Big Bang,” the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, to determine the universe’s vital statistics—its age, content, geometry, and origin. This feat in turn has helped transform cosmology itself into a precision science.