Brian Schmidt

Awards & Honours

Awards Won

Honours

Records

Brian Schmidt's list of honours is remarkable even by Nobel standards. He is one of only a handful of people to have won the Shaw Prize, the Gruber Prize, the Nobel Prize, and the Breakthrough Prize for the same body of work. His 1998 discovery was named Science magazine's Breakthrough of the Year. In Australia, he received the inaugural Malcolm McIntosh Award and later the Companion of the Order of Australia, one of the nation's highest civilian honours. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2012 and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2023. These honours reflect not just a single breakthrough, but a career of sustained excellence in research and leadership.

AwardsSchmidt has won some of the most prestigious awards in science. He shared the 2006 Shaw Prize in Astronomy, the 2007 Gruber Prize for Cosmology, the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, and the 2014 Breakthrough Prize in Physics. In Australia, he received the inaugural Malcolm McIntosh Award in 2000, the Pawsey Medal in 2001, and the Vainu Bappu Medal in 2002. He was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2013.

Honours & Distinctions

Companion of the Order of Australia (AC)

Government of Australia·2013

One of Australia's highest civilian honours, for service to astronomy and higher education.

Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)

Royal Society·2012

Elected for his contributions to cosmology.

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science

Australian Academy of Science

Elected for his research achievements.

Fellow of the US National Academy of Sciences

National Academy of Sciences

Elected as a foreign member.

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE)

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering·2023

Elected for his contributions to astronomy and technology.

Foreign Member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences

Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences

Elected as a foreign member.

Foreign Member of the Indian Academy of Sciences

Indian Academy of Sciences

Elected as a foreign member.

Records & Feats

First to demonstrate the accelerating expansion of the universe

Scientific Discovery·1998

As co-leader of the High-Z Supernova Search Team, Schmidt's 1998 observations provided the first direct evidence that the universe's expansion is accelerating, a discovery that led to the Nobel Prize and reshaped cosmology.