Brian Schmidt, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Vice-chancellor
Australian National University (ANU)
Brian Schmidt, winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics, was an astrophysicist at the ANU Mount Stromlo Observatory and Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics before becoming vice-chancellor at ANU. Under his leadership, in 1998, the High-Z Supernova Search team made the startling discovery that the expansion rate of the Universe is accelerating. Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, The United States Academy of Science, and the Royal Society, he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2013.