The University of California has its hands all over the Nobels this year, in one way or another. Today it was announced that George Smoot of the Department of Physics here at Berkeley has won the Nobel Prize in Physics for astrophysical work examining the residual blackbody radiation from the early universe. It turns out his co-recipient, John Mather, also did his graduate work here at UC^(†). From the press release:

Smoot, a resident of Berkeley, was surprised by an early morning call from Sweden to his unlisted cell phone, which the Nobel committee obtained by waking his neighbor.

"There were no rumors. I figured they only give the prize when you're close to death, and I still have enough life left in me," said Smoot, 61.

This marks the twentieth Nobel Prize awarded to Berkeley faculty, and the eighth given to faculty in the Physics Department. Around Birge and Le Conte Halls, we have lots of parking spaces marked 'NL' (these are the ones allocated to the Nobel Laureates). Looks like they'll have to clear off a handicapped spot to make room for the new bigshot.

^(†) Let us not forget Andy Fire, who won yesterday for Medicine, and who is also a Berkeley alumn.

UPDATE: I almost missed this part of the press release:

In the finest tradition of Berkeley Nobelists, George is also a dedicated teacher. In addition to working with his graduate students, he currently sponsors undergraduate researchers in his lab and this semester is teaching Physics 7B, the introductory course for science and engineering majors.

Must be a heady feeling to walk into your first class as an undergrad only to find that your lecturer was just awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics that morning.

PHOTO UPDATE: The Department of Physics just held a reception in honor of Smoot's Nobel. I was standing just behind Berkeley's Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and George Smoot during the toast, so look for my bright shining face tomorrow on the Berkeley website. I also managed to snap a couple photos on the trusty camera-phone. Below, see George Smoot and 1997 laureate Steven Chu, respectively: