Australian National University professor and Canberra local Brian Schmidt has become the first Australian to win the Nobel Prize for Physics in almost 100 years, in a surprise announcement that left the world-leading astrophysicist in shock last night.
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Professor Schmidt, who has worked in Canberra for 17 years, was awarded the honour for his gro-undbreaking work using exploding stars to discover that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, rather than slowing down as expected.
He also posited the existence of a mysterious dark energy, which makes up three quarters of the entire universe, that is pushing the cosmos ever faster apart.
The ANU academic becomes Australia's 12th Nobel laureate, and the first to receive the honour in physics since 1915.
Speaking to The Canberra Times late last night, the US-born professor was still coming to grips with the reality of his achievement at his 35ha farm near Sutton.
''[I'm] slightly bewildered, lots of action on the phone ... my kids are amused, as you might imagine,'' he said.
''Seriously though, for me it's extremely exciting, it's obviously pretty surprising to get the call,
''It's sort of mind-numbingly hard to put it all into context at this point.''
Professor Schmidt was jointly awarded the Noble Prize along with fellow team member Adam Riess, from Baltimore, and Saul Permutter, from California, who led a separate team that reached the same conclusions independently.
Professors Schmidt and Riess will share in $A1.5million prize money, but the money reward was far from his thoughts last night. ''I think I'll just take deep breaths at this point,'' he said. ''I've got to teach cosmology tomorrow at the ANU and so I've got to deal with my normal life.''
Australian National University Vice-Chancellor Ian Young said he was delighted to hear one of his pre-eminent researchers had claimed the world's most significant prize last night.
''My congratulations go to Brian for an outstanding piece of work and a career which has been focused on looking at the really big discoveries.''
Professor Schmidt's Nobel Prize takes to four the number of Nobel Prizes won by ANU researchers for work done at the university.
Professor Young said that for Professor Schmidt, ''his life is going to change totally''.
Professor Schmidt has long been an admirer of Canberra .
He lives with his two teenage children, who attend Dickson College and Campbell High School, and his wife Jenny Gordon, who is an economist at the Productivity Commission. ''Some people are mixed on Canberra, but for me it's the perfect place to live,'' he said last night.
''I grew up in Alaska, so the cold here doesn't bother me, I really like the size, and for me it's a very liveable place, it's where I want to live.''
Professor Schmidt is also a passionate wine drinker, and grows about 1ha of pinot noir on his property.
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