“Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition and the Perils of Science's Highest Honor”

The College of Arts and Sciences will host a free lecture titled “Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition and the Perils of Science's Highest Honor,” to explore a recent controversy in astronomy and the merits of the Nobel Prize. The event will take place Thursday, Oct. 11, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at the Temple – Tifereth Israel. Register for the lecture on Eventbrite.

About the lecture

What would it have been like to be an eyewitness to the Big Bang? In 2014, astronomers wielding Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP) 2, the most powerful cosmology telescope ever made, thought they’d glimpsed the spark that ignited the Big Bang. Millions around the world tuned in to the announcement and Nobel Prize whispers began to spread. But had these cosmologists truly read the cosmic prologue or, driven by ambition in pursuit of the Nobel Prize, had they been deceived by a galactic mirage? Cosmologist Brian Keating―who first conceived the BICEP experiments―will share the inside story of BICEP2’s detection and the ensuing scientific drama. Along the way, Keating will argue that the Nobel Prize actually hampers scientific progress by encouraging speed and competition while punishing inclusivity, collaboration and bold innovation. He will argue that to build on BICEP2’s efforts to reveal the cosmos’ ultimate secrets―indeed, to advance science itself―the Nobel Prize must be radically reformed.

About Keating

Keating is an astrophysicist with University of California San Diego’s Department of Physics. He and his team develop instrumentation to study the early universe at radio, microwave and infrared wavelengths. He is the author of more than 100 scientific publications and holds two U.S. patents. He received a National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2006 and a 2007 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers at the White House from George W. President Bush for a telescope he invented and deployed at the U.S. South Pole Research Station, dubbed “BICEP.” Keating became a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2016. He co-leads the Simons Array and Simons Observatory Cosmic Microwave Background experiments in the Atacama Desert of Chile.