Manitoba History
The world’s leading theoretical cosmologist
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Born in St. Boniface, Jim Peebles went on to win a Nobel Prize in phsyics.
oes the name Jim Peebles mean anything to you? If not, it should. Phillip James Edwin Peebles OM FRS “took on the cosmos, with its billions of galaxies and galaxy clusters. His theoretical framework, developed over two decades, is the foundation of our modern understanding of the universe’s history, from the Big Bang to the present day,” said the president of Princeton University. For this, Jim Peebles was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics along with Michel Mayor of Geneva and Didier Queloz of Geneva. Born April 25 in 1935 in St. Boniface, Jim grew up in Norwood and St. Vital. His dad, Andrew, was clerk at Winnipeg’s Grain Exchange, loved working with his hands and had a workshop that Jim enjoyed puttering around in. He says he liked to build things: sleighs and forts in the back yard, and he learned how to make gun powder. He enjoyed looking at trains and seeing how the mechanics worked. But his self education was of the kind that boys followed in those days, exploring the world around him and soaking it all up. His mother, Ada (Green) made sure the household ran smoothly. Jim enjoyed the Popular Mechanics magazines his dad brought home, but he was most engaged with the fascinating ads about making a fortune from chinchilla farming or offers of intriguing tools that captured his imagination. He never acted on any of these interests. He didn’t start out with any glorious ideas about discovering how the universe works. He says he didn’t even think about science in high school and remembers only being intrigued with triangles. “I was not a very attentive student,” he said of his high school studies in an interview with Martin
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Hewit at Princeton in 1984. He loved skiing and skating and enjoyed the community clubs that were so much a part of the Winnipeg culture at the time. He learned to square dance and loved the parties. He graduated high school at the top of his tiny class of 12. He entered the University of Manitoba intent on studying engineering. He attended those classes for two years but didn’t find engineering all that exciting. Some friends were majoring in physics, so he switched over. “I somehow had the feeling they were having better parties than we were having in engineering,” he said. “I instantly felt that physics and the math that went with it were great.” He said, “As I think back, I am impressed with how good the lectures I got at the University of Manitoba were.” Jim left the University of Manitoba in 1958, but not before he found his future wife, Alison. He went on to study at and then pursue a doctorate at Princeton University on the advice of Ken Standing, his U of M mentor. At Princeton, fate once again took a hand in his career. He was bent on studying particle physics. A professor, Bob Dickie, took him under his wing and gradually led Jim in the direction of gravity physics which led him by logical extension to cosmology. The rest is history. Jim Peebles is a man of great modesty and understatement. “It was quite a joy ride,” he said of his journey of discovery to the Big Bang Theory in his speech to Princeton after the prize was awarded. Even with all the evidence supporting his theory, he still has questions and doubts. “We can be very sure that that theory isn’t the final answer,” he added. Surely that realization is the mark of a truly great man. The Hub
