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Philip James Edwin Peebles (born April 25, 1935) is a Canadian-American physicist and theoretical cosmologist. He is usually known by the name "James" or "Jim". He was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and completed his bachelor's degree at the University of Manitoba. He completed his doctorate at Princeton University and has remained there since then. He is currently a professor emeritus.

He made many important contributions to the big bang model. He predicted with Robert Dicke and others (nearly two decades after George Gamov, Ralph A. Alpher and Robert C. Herman) the cosmic microwave background radiation. He has made major contributions to big bang nucleosynthesis, dark matter and dark energy. He has contributed throughout the theory of structure formation. He was studying physical cosmology long before it was considered a serious, quantitative branch of physics, and has done much to establish its respectability.

Awards

• Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1981)
• Heineman Prize (1982)
• Henry Norris Russell Lectureship (1993)
• Bruce Medal (1995)
• Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1998)
• Shaw Prize in Astronomy (2004)
• Crafoord Prize with James E. Gunn and Martin Rees (2005)
• Hitchcock Professorship (2006)

Named after him

• Asteroid 18242 Peebles

• Bruce Medalists
• Personal Web page at Princeton University (Photos)

• B. Rhatra and P. J. E. Peebles, "The cosmological constant and dark energy", Rev. Mod. Phys. 75, 559 (2003) arXiv:astro-ph/0207347.
• M. Fukugita, C. J. Hogan and P. J. E. Peebles, "The cosmic baryon budget", Astrophys. J. '503, 518 (1998) arXiv:astro-ph/9712020.
• P. J. E. Peebles, Principles of Physical Cosmology (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1993).
• B. Rhatra and P. J. E. Peebles, "Cosmology with a time-variable cosmological 'constant'", Astrophys. J. 325, L17 (1988).
• B. Rhatra and P. J. E. Peebles, "Cosmological consequences of a rolling homogeneous scalar field", Phys. Rev. D 37, 3406 (1988).
• M. Davis and P. J. E. Peebles, "A survey of galaxy redshifts. V - The two-point position and velocity correlations", Astrophys. J. 267, 465 (1983).
• P. J. E. Peebles, "Large-scale background temperature and mass fluctuations due to scale-invariant primeval perturbations", Astrophys. J. 263, L1 (1982).
• P. J. E. Peebles, The large-scale structure of the universe (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1980).
• E. J. Groth and P. J. E. Peebles, "Statistical Analysis Of Catalogs Of Extragalactic Objects. 7. Two And Three Point Correlation Functions For The High-Resolution Shane-Wirtanen Catalog Of Galaxies", Astrophys. J. 217, 385 (1977).
• J. P. Ostriker and P. J. E. Peebles, "A Numerical Study of the Stability of Flattened Galaxies: or, can Cold Galaxies Survive?", Astrophys. J. 186, 467 (1973).
• P. J. E. Peebles, Physical Cosmology, (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1971).
• P. J. E. Peebles and J. T. Yu, "Primeval adiabatic perturbation in an expanding universe", Astrophys. J. 162, 815 (1970).
• P. J. E. Peebles, "Origin of the Angular Momentum of Galaxies", Astrophys. J. 155, 393 (1969).
• P. J. E. Peebles and R. H. Dicke, "Origin of the Globular Star Clusters", Astrophys. J. 154, 891 (1968).
• P. J. E. Peebles, "Primordial Helium Abundance and the Primordial Fireball. II", Astrophys. J. 146, 542 (1966).
• P. J. E. Peebles, “Primordial Helium Abundance and the Primordial Fireball. I", Phys. Rev. Lett. 16, 410 (1966).
• R. H. Dicke, P. J. E. Peebles, P. G. Roll and D. T. Wilkinson, "Cosmic Black-Body Radiation", Astrophys. J. 142, 414 (1965).