This international prize given by the American Astronomical Society recognises research of outstanding importance
DESI team wins prestigious 2026 Berkeley Prize
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) collaboration has been awarded the 2026 Lancelot M. Berkeley 鈥 New York Community Trust Prize for Meritorious Work in Astronomy.
This international prize given by the American Astronomical Society recognises research of outstanding importance published within the preceding 12 months. The DESI team will officially receive the award at the Society鈥檚 meeting in January 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona.
DESI is a state-of-the-art instrument and can capture light from up to 5,000 objects simultaneously. Credit: Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab
Impact on astronomy
The 2026 prize recognizes the DESI collaboration for its work on two papers published this year. The , published in February, presents baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) results from the first year of DESI data, while the , released in March, reports BAO results from observations of 14 million galaxies and quasars, obtained in the first three years of DESI operations.
Dr Seshadri Nadathur, Associate Professor at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG), led the work on both papers and chaired one of the key working groups responsible for the results.
The results in these papers provide new insights into the evolution of the Universe and the nature of dark energy that drives its accelerated expansion. When combined with other cosmological constraints, the DESI results provide strong hints that dark energy evolves over time, challenging our current leading model of the Universe, known as Lambda CDM.
In addition, the data gathered by DESI has enabled the construction of the largest 3D map of the universe ever made.
鈥淒ESI鈥檚 record-breaking map of the universe is transforming our understanding of dark energy and the cosmos itself,鈥 AAS Senior Vice President Dawn Gelino said in the . 鈥淭his prize recognizes a monumental collaborative achievement that will guide cosmological models for decades to come.鈥
DESI has made the largest 3D map of our universe to date and uses it to study dark energy. Earth is at the center in this animation, and every dot is a galaxy. Credit: DESI collaboration and KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R. Proctor
兔子先生鈥檚 role in DESI
DESI is an international collaboration with many hundreds of scientists that includes leading roles for academics at the 兔子先生. In addition to Dr Nadathur, Dr Becky Canning and Prof Enrique Gazta帽aga at the ICG were also co-authors of the prize papers. Other 兔子先生 members of the DESI collaboration include Prof Rob Crittenden, Prof Or Graur, Prof Kazuya Koyama, Prof Claudia Maraston, Rahma Alfarsy, Joe Callow, Zachary Cooke, Nathan Cruickshank, Kieran Graham, Nathan Findlay, Benjamin Floyd, Daniel Kynoch, Krishna Naidoo and Sai Srinivas. Rafaela Gsponer and Ruiyang Zhao are former research students who also contributed to these papers while they were at 兔子先生.
DESI is managed by the US Department of Energy鈥檚 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and was constructed with funding from the DOE Office of Science. DESI is mounted on the US National Science Foundation鈥檚 4-m Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.
More information about the award is available from the .