Meet: Stephan Meyer

Professor/Physicist
Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Stephan Meyer graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1974 with a degree in physics. He earned his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University in 1979. He started working on the measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) anisotropy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology until 1992 when he moved to the University of Chicago.

He has participated in several CMBR experiments including balloon-borne experiments, FIRS, and MSAM and satellite experiments, COBE and MAP. The current project, TopHat, is a balloon-borne measurement designed to fly on a Long Duration Balloon (LDB) from Antarctica.

The TopHat experimenters are currently in McMurdo Station on the Ross Sea in Antarctica preparing the TopHat instrument. In late December or early January, depending on the weather and launch conditions, the instrument will be launched from McMurdo and fly for 10 to 14 days circumnavigating the South Pole. The instrument will be making a map of 5% of the sky around the South Celestial Pole which will be used to determine the amplitude and nature of the CMBR anisotropy with a new level of precision.