Professor John Cromwell Mather Virginia is an American astrophysicist and cosmologist who was born on August 7 , 1946 , Roanoke . He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work on COBE satellite with George Smoot . John Cromwell Mather ( b. August 7 , 1946 , Roanoke , Virginia ) is an American astrophysicist , cosmologist and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite ( COBE ) with George Smoot .