On 8 August, to commemorate the birthday of Nobel Prize winner P. A. M. Dirac, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy, presented the 2002 Dirac Medal and Prize to three cosmologists. The medal recognizes significant contributions to theoretical physics and mathematics.
The ICTP honored Alan Guth, Victor F. Weisskopf Professor of Physics and Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow at MIT, Andrei Linde, professor of physics at Stanford University, and Paul Steinhardt, Albert Einstein Professor of Science, who holds a joint appointment in the physics and astrophysical sciences departments at Princeton University, for “the development of the concept of inflation in cosmology.” The theory of inflation, introduced in the 1980s, has offered scientists a view of the early history of the universe. Although that history has not been firmly established, said the medal’s selection committee, “the idea of inflation has already had notable observational...
