Prize Recipient

John Richard Bond
Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Toronto

"For developing conceptual and quantitative tools that have enabled cosmologists to measure the geometry, content, and age of the universe."

J. Richard (Dick) Bond OC, O.Ont., FRS, FRSC, grew up in Toronto, graduating from the UofT in 1973. He received his PhD from Caltech, became a lecturer at Berkeley, then a faculty member at Stanford. In 1985 he returned to the UofT as a founding faculty member in the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) and a Fellow of Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), in its Cosmology & Gravity (C&G) and Gravity & the Extreme Universe Programs. He served two terms as director of CITA and was C&G director 2002-17. Bond has played a leading role in developing Canadian cosmology into its current vibrant state, and for making CITA a sought-after destination for over 200 post-PhD scientists, most in distinguished national and international faculty positions. His work ranges from the ultra early to the ultra late universe, and everything in between, including neutrinos, dark matter and dark energy, gravity waves, inflation-era fields, and the “cosmic web” structure formation paradigm. He is best known for making cosmic background radiation fluctuations into a high precision tool for exploring the cosmos, most sharply with the Planck and Atacama Cosmology Telescopes. He has been honored with almost all major Canadian awards. He was the 2008 Gruber Laureate in Cosmology, and also got the 2018 Gruber with the Planck team. He is an International Member of the US National Academy of Sciences and a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy.