Brian P. Schmidt, AC FAA FRS, is a Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at Australian National University (ANU).
He is best known for leading the High-Z Supernova Search Team — the collaboration whose 1998 observations of distant Type Ia supernovae revealed that the universe’s expansion is accelerating rather than slowing.
This landmark discovery — pointing to the existence of a mysterious “dark energy” dominating cosmic expansion — earned Schmidt the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011 (shared with Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess).
Beyond this, Schmidt has contributed widely to cosmology, supernova astronomy, gamma-ray burst studies, and survey astronomy — including leading the south-sky mapping project SkyMapper Telescope.
He held the position of Vice-Chancellor & President of ANU from 2016 to 2023, guiding the university’s academic mission and public-science engagement.
