Professor Brian P. Schmidt is a Distinguished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and astrophysicist at the Australian National University Mount Stromlo Observatory. Schmidt, along with Riess and Perlmutter, was jointly awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of the accelerating Universe. Schmidt is currently leading the SkyMapper telescope Project and the associated Southern Sky Survey.

In June 2015, he was appointed as the next Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University, commencing in January 2016.