Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard today congratulated Professor Brian Schmidt of the Australian National University for winning the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics, which he shares with two fellow laureates. Professor Schmidt led one of two teams to make the discovery that the universe's expansion is accelerating through observations of distant supernovae.
The Prime Minister extended her congratulations to the international teams involved in the discovery including Australia’s Dr Brian Boyle, director of the Australian-New Zealand Square Kilometre Array project, and Professor Warwick Couch of Swinburne University.
Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr said the prize illustrated Australia's great strength as a centre of scientific research excellence; a country where the spirit of discovery was valued. It is that spirit of discovery that has driven every genuine revolution in understanding in human history. And it is the same spirit that drives Australia to seek to host the Square Kilometre Array, to deliver maximum discovery to the world.
Full media release from Prime Minister Gillard and Minister Kim Carr
2011 Nobel Prize for Physics on the Nobel Prize website