Scientist Series

The Observer of Cosmic Expansion

Professor Brian Schmidt AC · Nobel Laureate in Physics, Australian National University

The Observer of Cosmic Expansion — Observerism portrait of Professor Brian Schmidt AC at Mount Stromlo by Samuel Morrow, oil on canvas, 180 x 120 cm, full view
Full view. Oil on canvas, 180 × 120 cm.
Detail of The Observer of Cosmic Expansion — Schmidt holding papers among the ruins, rings of the wave periphery across the plaid shirt, Observerism oil painting by Samuel Morrow
Detail: the papers and the ring field. Zoom in to read the construction.
Detail of the Milky Way and spiral wave structures across the top of The Observer of Cosmic Expansion, Observerism oil painting by Samuel Morrow
Detail: the sky above the ruined dome, the expansion of everything held as a wave.
The Observer of Cosmic Expansion hung on a gallery wall with the artist standing beside it for scale
The painting hung, with the artist beside it for scale. The canvas is 1.8 metres tall.

About the sitter

Professor Brian Schmidt AC

In 1998 Brian Schmidt led the High-Z Supernova Search Team to a discovery that no one expected. By measuring the brightness of distant Type Ia supernovae, which explode with consistent intrinsic luminosity and can therefore be used as standard candles, the team found that the expansion of the universe is not slowing under gravity but accelerating. The result implied that most of the energy in the universe is of a kind nobody has been able to identify. He shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for the work.

He is a Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University, an astrophysicist at Mount Stromlo Observatory and the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and served as the University’s twelfth Vice-Chancellor. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Royal Society, and the United States National Academy of Sciences, and was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2013.

Full profile — Australian National University (opens in a new tab)

About the painting

Brian walked me through Mount Stromlo. The observatory burned in the firestorm of 18 January 2003 and several telescopes remain in ruins. The one he stands beside was used mostly for work on gamma-ray bursts, the largest explosions in the universe. He corrected me on that when I got it wrong, which tells you something about him. He is painted among the ruins, still working.