David Todd Wilkinson

David Todd Wilkinson (May 13, 1935 – September 5, 2002) was an American cosmologist and a professor of physics at Princeton University. He was elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1983. The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) is named in his honor.

Quotes

• The universe is filled with thermal radiation having a current temperature of 2.75 K. Originating in the very early universe, this radiation furnishes strong evidence that the Big Bang cosmology best describes our expanding universe from an incredibly hot, compacted early stage until now. The model can be used to extrapolate our physics backward in time to predict events whose effects might be observable in the 2.75 K radiation today. The spectrum and isotropy are being studied with sophisticated microwave radiometers on the ground, in balloons, and in satellites. The results are as predicted by the simple theory: the spectrum is that of a blackbody (to a few percent) and the radiation is isotropic (to 0.01 percent) except for a local effect due to our motion through the radiation.
  • (1986). "Anisotropy of the Cosmic Blackbody Radiation". Science 232 (4757): 1517–1522. DOI:10.1126/science.232.4757.1517.

Quotes about Wilkinson

• David Todd Wilkinson died on 5 September 2002 in Princeton, New Jersey, after having battled cancer for 17 years. His role in the measurements of the thermal cosmic background radiation (CMB) was key to the completion of the program of cosmological tests that began with Edwin Hubble’s discovery of the expanding universe in 1929.
  • John C. Mather, Lyman Page, P. James E. Peebles, "Obituary. David Todd Wilkinson". Physics Today 56 (5): 76–77. DOI:10.1063/1.1583543.

External links

• Encyclopedic article on David Todd Wilkinson on Wikipedia
• Media related to David Todd Wilkinson on Wikimedia Commons