Prize Recipient

Manuel Peimbert
UNAM

Citation:

"For outstanding work on the primordial helium abundance as well as abundances of other elements and their implications for cosmology and for the chemical evolution of galaxies and stars. This work is fundamental as a critical test for cosmological theories and the baryonic content of the Universe."

Background:

Manuel Peimbert received his BA in physics from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, in 1962 and his PhD in Astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1967. He has been a Professor at the Institute of Astronomy, UNAM, since 1968.

Peimbert has been working on the study of physical conditions in gaseous nebulae. In particular on the chemical composition  of H II regions and planetary nebulae in our Galaxy and other galaxies, the study of the chemical evolution of galaxies and together with Silvia Torres-Peimbert on the determination of the primordial helium abundance based on very metal poor extragalactic H II regions.

Selection Committee:

Gail McLaughlin, Chair; M. Israel; C.J. Pethick; V. Trimble; J.A. Carlson