High-Z Supernova Search Team

The team was formed in 1994 by Brian P. Schmidt, then a post-doctoral research associate at Harvard University, and Nicholas B. Suntzeff, a staff astronomer at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile.

The original team submitted a proposal on September 29, 1994 called A Pilot Project to Search for Distant Type Ia Supernova to the CTIO.

The team on the first observing proposal comprised: Nicholas Suntzeff (PI); Brian Schmidt (Co-I); (other Co-Is) R. Chris Smith, Robert Schommer, Mark M. Phillips, Mario Hamuy, Roberto Aviles, Jose Maza, Adam Riess, Robert Kirshner, Jason Spyromilio, and Bruno Leibundgut.

In 1995, the HZT elected Brian P. Schmidt of the Mount Stromlo Observatory which is part of the Australian National University to manage the team.

In January 1998, Notre Dame astrophysicist Peter Garnavich, then working at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, led a High-Z team publication that used the Hubble Space Telescope to study three high-redshift supernovae.

The High-Z Supernova Search Team at the 2011 Nobel Prize ceremony. Brian Schmidt (right center) and Adam Reiss (left center) were awarded medals.
The original telescope time proposal in 1994 to the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory which began the High-Z Team.