Newswise — Astronomers believe our universe began in a Big Bang, and is expanding around us. On Wednesday, June 3, as part of PI's public lecture series, Brian Schmidt will describe the life of the universe that we live in, and how astronomers have used observations to trace our universe's history back more than 13 billion years.

Brian Schmidt is a Federation Fellow at The Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory. In 1994 he formed the HighZ SN Search team, a group of 20 astronomers on 5 continents who used distant exploding stars to trace the expansion of the Universe back in time. This group's discovery of an accelerating universe was named Science Magazine's 'Breakthrough of the Year' for 1998.

Prof. Schmidt's lecture, entitled "The Universe from Beginning to End" will be held Wednesday, June 3 at 7:00 pm in Waterloo, Ontario.

Additional details can be found at www.perimeterinstitute.ca.

ABOUT PERIMETER INSTITUTE:Canada's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is an independent, non-profit, scientific research and educational outreach organization where international scientists cluster to push the limits of our understanding of physical laws and develop new ideas about the very essence of space, time, matter and information. The Institute, located in Waterloo, also provides a wide array of educational outreach activities to share the joy of scientific research, discovery and innovation. In partnership with the Governments of Ontario and Canada, PI is a successful example of private and public collaboration in science research and education.