Alexei A.
Starobinsky

Born in Moscow, Alexei A. Starobinsky (1948-2023) studied at Moscow State University and the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics in Chernogolovka near Moscow, gaining his PhD in 1975. Starobinsky has continued to work at the Landau Institute throughout his career and served as its deputy director from 1999 to 2003.

During the 1970s, he studied particle creation in the early universe and from rotating black holes, work that led him to the theory of cosmological inflation. Later, along with colleagues, Starobinsky developed the theory of how quantum fluctuations in the early universe are blown up by inflation and provide the seeds of the large scale structure of the universe.

Starobinsky is a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and in 1996 received its Friedmann Prize. He has been the editor of numerous journals and has been awarded the Tomalla Prize, the Oskar Klein Medal, and the Gruber Prize in Cosmology.