Viatcheslav Mukhanov is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist. He is one of the authors of the evidence of the inflationary theory of the Universe. V. Mukhanov is Professor, Head of the “Astroparticles and cosmology” Department of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Viatcheslav Mukhanov had started quantum calculations when he was a student. In 1981, working in the Lebedev Physical Institute, Viatcheslav Mukhanov jointly with Gennady Chibasov developed a hypothesis according to which the large-scale structure of the Universe originates from quantum fluctuations. From 1982 to 1989, he was working out quantum theory of cosmic fluctuations that can be used for calculating inhomogeneities in various inflation models of the Universe. The first evidence of this theory was obtained in 1992 in the COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) experiment at the WMAP space probe that measured temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background. The theory was then developed in scientific papers by Andrei Linde and Alan Guth from the MIT.

In 2009, jointly with Aleksei Starobinsky, V. Mukhanov got the Tomalla Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in the fields of astrophysics that is decorated for significant contribution to the general theory of relativity and the gravitational theory. Other awards of Viatcheslav Mukhanov include: Gold Medal of the USSR Academy of Sciences for young scientists (1988); Honorary Lecturer of the Stanford University (2004); Honorary Member of the Institute of Physics, the UK (2004); Oskar Klein Medal, Stockholm University, Sweden (2006); Honorary Title of Honored Professor of the New York University, the USA (2008), Blaise Pascal Chair, ENS, Paris, France (2011); Amaldi Medal of the Italian Society on General Relativity and Gravitation (jointly with A.A. Starobinsky, 2012); Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2013); Friedrich von Schelling Prize (2014); Max Planck Medal (2015); BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (jointly with Stephen Hawking, 2015).