Adam Riess is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor and the Thomas J. Barber Professor in Space Studies at Johns Hopkins University in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, as well as a Distinguished Astronomer and Senior member of the Science Staff at the Space Telescope Science Institute. In Space Science, his research centers on observational cosmology, particularly measurements of the expansion history of the universe using Type Ia supernovae as standard candles and Cepheid variable stars. He earned a B.S. in physics with a minor in history from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992 and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Harvard University in 1996. After completing a Miller Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley from 1996 to 1999, Riess joined the Space Telescope Science Institute in 1999 and Johns Hopkins University in 2006, where he was appointed a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in 2016.

Riess led the High-z Supernova Search Team, publishing the first direct evidence in 1998 that the universe's expansion is accelerating, driven by dark energy (Riess et al. 1998, Astronomical Journal, 116, 1009). This breakthrough, shared with the Supernova Cosmology Project, was named Science magazine's Breakthrough of the Year and culminated in his co-receipt of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics with Saul Perlmutter and Brian Schmidt. He also led the Hubble Higher-z Team, detecting the preceding decelerating phase and confirming acceleration by measuring 25 distant supernovae at redshifts greater than 1 (Riess et al. 2004, Astrophysical Journal, 607, 655), work NASA identifies as the Hubble Space Telescope's top achievement. Currently, he leads the SHOES Team, refining the Hubble constant to 1.8% precision with Hubble observations, and the Higher-z Team probing cosmic acceleration origins. His honors include the 2014 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, 2011 Albert Einstein Medal and NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Award, 2008 MacArthur Fellowship, 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize, 2006 Shaw Prize in Astronomy, and election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2009 and American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008. Riess has delivered distinguished lectures, including the Albert Einstein Memorial Lecture in 2014, and supervises graduate students and postdocs at Johns Hopkins and STScI.

Professional Email: ariess@stsci.edu