Andreas J. Albrecht

Albrecht contributed to the understanding of the origin of the universe and the nature of dark energy. Albrecht and Steinhardt's 1982 work, Cosmology for Grand Unified Theories with Radiatively Induced Symmetry Breaking developed the idea of slow roll inflation. They postulated that the universe underwent a very rapid period of inflation driven by its vacuum energy. Over the subsequent thirty years, many of the basic predictions of this model have been confirmed. Albrecht also played a leading role in defining how the astronomy and physics community think about cosmic acceleration through his leadership on the Dark Energy Task Force.  Albrecht has made important pioneering explorations of how cosmic inflation and dark energy can fit into a more complete picture of the cosmos and fundamental physics.