Uploaded May 2016 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
On May 3, 2016, the National Capital Area Skeptics presented Dr. John Mather with our Philip J. Klass Award for outstanding contributions in promoting critical thinking and scientific understanding. Dr. Mather is the Senior Project Scientist for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. The award presentation was followed by Dr. Mather's talk on "The History of the Universe from the Beginning to the End: Where Did We Come From, Where Can We Go?"
Also in attendance was Dr. Michael Hauser, who is mentioned several times in the video. Mather and Hauser were members of NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) science team. Launched in 1989, COBE obtained the first precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background glow, with results that confirmed an essential prediction of the Big Bang model of the origin of the universe, and revealed the expected slight background temperature variations indicative of early matter distribution that evolved into immense cosmic voids and galaxy filaments as the universe continued to expand.
For this work, John Mather and George Smoot equally shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics. Hauser, Smoot, and sixteen other members of the COBE science team shared half of the 2006 Gruber Prize in Cosmology, with the other half going to Mather.
The presence of Dr. Hauser and his wife at the Klass Award dinner was a surprise to Dr. Mather, who considers Hauser a mentor as well as a friend and colleague, dating back to 1974 when they and other team members began developing the COBE concept.
On May 3, 2016, the National Capital Area Skeptics presented Dr. John Mather with our Philip J. Klass Award for outstanding contributions in promoting critical thinking and scientific understanding. Dr. Mather is the Senior Project Scientist for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. The award presentation was followed by Dr. Mather's talk on "The History of the Universe from the Beginning to the End: Where Did We Come From, Where Can We Go?"
Also in attendance was Dr. Michael Hauser, who is mentioned several times in the video. Mather and Hauser were members of NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) science team. Launched in 1989, COBE obtained the first precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background glow, with results that confirmed an essential prediction of the Big Bang model of the origin of the universe, and revealed the expected slight background temperature variations indicative of early matter distribution that evolved into immense cosmic voids and galaxy filaments as the universe continued to expand.
For this work, John Mather and George Smoot equally shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics. Hauser, Smoot, and sixteen other members of the COBE science team shared half of the 2006 Gruber Prize in Cosmology, with the other half going to Mather.
The presence of Dr. Hauser and his wife at the Klass Award dinner was a surprise to Dr. Mather, who considers Hauser a mentor as well as a friend and colleague, dating back to 1974 when they and other team members began developing the COBE concept.
