ICMNS 2014 Invited 2011 Physics Nobel Prize Winner Prof. Brian P. Schmidt
BANDUNG, itb.ac.id - International Conference on Mathematics and Natural Sciences (ICMNS) was back in Bandung Institute of Technology. This year (02-03/11/14) was the fifth one, held by the corporation among The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, The School of Life Sciences and Technology, and The School of Pharmacy. One of the special programs was The Grand Public Lecture by the 2011 Physics Nobel Prize Winner, Prof. Brian P. Schmidt from Australian National University. The title of the public lecture on Sunday (02/11/14) in West Hall was "The Accelerating Universe". Prof. Brian got Nobel Prize as the appreciation of his research in determining the acceleration of the expanding universe. 
ITB Rector Prof. Akhmaloka attended the public lecture and got to deliver an opening speech at the moment. "We are proud to be here for the public lecture delivered by a Nobel Prize Winner in Physics with the specialty on Astrophysics. Hopefully, one of you will achieve Nobel awards," he said to the students.
The distance of the outer objects in the space is getting further and further from us. In the classic theory of Big Bang, there is an energy that causes the universe to be accelerated so it is expanding. With the team which the members came from all over the world, Prof. Brian P. Schmidt found the theory that there is Dark Energy that causes the universe accelerated.
The research done by Prof. Brian P. Schmidt was inspired by the researches done by the outstanding scientists in 20th century. The expanding universe was approved by Hubble's research (1929). Based on his research using telescope, it was found that the further a star is, the faster it is moving away from us. Wherever we are on earth, everyone can see the same phenomenon. In 1907, Einstein also declared about the cosmological constant. There is a fundamental energy in this universe which pushes rather than pulls.
Talking about the Nobel Prize he got, Prof. Brian P. Schmidt admitted that he never had a dream about it. Growing in unpretentious childhood in Montana and Alaska USA did not make him had an ambition to reach the world class prize. "It's just a little bit of luck and a little bit of hard work."
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