David Todd Wilkinson
David Todd Wilkinson ( born May 13, 1935 in Hillsdale (Michigan ); † 5 September 2002 in Princeton ( New Jersey)) was an American astrophysicist and cosmologist, who examined the cosmic microwave background.
Wilkinson was born in Hillsdale, Michigan. He studied and earned bachelor, master and doctoral degrees at the University of Michigan. From 1963 on, he was a research assistant and from 1965 until his retirement in 2002 Professor at Princeton University.
He belonged to the team of Robert H. Dicke, the building on the predictions of George Gamow and colleagues looked for a cosmic background radiation, but which was then first discovered by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson accidentally. Later Wilkinson made major contributions to several experiments to study the cosmic microwave background, including the two NASA projects Cosmic Background Explorer and Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. The latter was named after Wilkinson's death from cancer in his honor.