Nobel Prize winner George Smoot, who confirmed the Big Bang theory, has died

About it reports Phys.org with reference to the statement of the University of California at Berkeley.

Smoot died on 18 September in Paris from a heart attack, specified in the message of the educational institution, where he worked most of his life. His name is forever associated with the experimental confirmation of the Big Bang theory - the hypothesis of the origin of the universe as a result of rapid expansion about 14 billion years ago.

Together with John Mather of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre, he worked on the Big Bang theory. Goddard, Smoot won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his discovery of relic radiation, an ancient heat signature from the early universe.

"It is thanks to his research that we have 'snapshots' of the infant universe," wrote Berkeley Lab director Mike Weatherall.

A Florida native, George Smoot received his PhD in particle physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1970. Soon after, he joined Lawrence National Laboratory in Berkeley, where he led a project to measure the microwave background of the universe. His team discovered microscopic temperature fluctuations in relic radiation that became the "beginnings" of modern galaxies.

After winning the Nobel Prize, he directed $500,000 of the prize money to establish the Centre for Cosmological Physics at UC Berkeley, and later became an active speaker on climate change. After retiring in 2014, he continued his teaching and research activities in Paris at the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique et de Cosmologie (APC).

Smoot was not only a distinguished scientist but also a media personality. He appeared twice as himself in the TV series "The Big Bang Theory" and was the winner of the "Are you smarter than a fifth grader?" quiz in 2009.

"We will remember him as a bright man with broad interests that went far beyond scientific discovery," said colleagues at the APC Paris lab.

George Smoot is survived by a sister, two nieces and a life partner, Nora Chisar of Paris.