2025 Shaw Prize in Astronomy

John Richard Bond (University of Toronto) and George Efstathiou (University of Cambridge) have been awarded the 2025 Shaw Prize in Astronomy for their groundbreaking work in cosmology, particularly their research on the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Their theoretical predictions about fluctuations in the CMB were confirmed by a wide range of experiments, enabling extremely precise measurements of the Universe’s age, geometry, expansion rate, and mass-energy composition. Their models have become foundational in modern cosmology and are essential for interpreting observational data.

Bond and Efstathiou also made major contributions to our understanding of the “cosmic web” — the large-scale structure connecting galaxies into clusters and superclusters — as well as to the study of dark energy, galaxy evolution, and early-Universe physics. Their work has been instrumental in shaping the standard cosmological model.

Image: Photo of John Richard Bond (left) and George Efstathiou (right), Shaw Prize in Astronomy 2025.
Image Credits: Gruber Foundation, Yale University and University of Cambridge, Twitter/X.