Alexei Starobinsky

Alexei Starobinsky
Alexei Starobinsky
Алексей Старобинский
	Starobinsky in 2013
Born	19 April 1948; Moscow, Soviet Union
Died	21 December 2023 (aged 75)
Resting place	Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow
Education	Moscow State University (MSc); Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics (PhD);
Known for	Cosmic inflation
Awards	Friedmann Prize (1996); Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2013); Kavli Prize (2014); Dirac Medal (2019);
	Scientific career
Fields	Theoretical physics; Cosmology;
Institutions	Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics
Thesis	Quantum Effects and the Amplification of Waves in Strong Gravitational Forces (1975)
Doctoral advisor	Yakov Zeldovich
Doctoral students	Lev Abramovich Kofman; Varun Sahni;

Alexei Alexandrovich Starobinsky (Russian: Алексе́й Алекса́ндрович Староби́нский; 19 April 1948 – 21 December 2023) was a Soviet and Russian theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He was a pioneer of the theory of cosmic inflation, for which he received the 2014 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics together with Alan Guth and Andrei Linde.

Born in Moscow, Starobinsky obtained a degree in physics from Moscow State University in 1972 and a doctorate in theoretical and mathematical physics from the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics in 1975, the latter under the supervision of Yakov Zeldovich. Starobinsky remained at the Landau Institute, becoming its principal research scientist in 1997 and holding this position until his death.

While still a doctoral student, in 1973 he showed that, according to the uncertainty principle, rotating black holes must emit particles. This work led to Stephen Hawking conjecturing Hawking radiation. In 1979, he became the first to propose a model of cosmic inflation, postulating what is now known as Starobinsky inflation.