Herschel Medal

Herschel Medal
Awarded for	"investigations of outstanding merit in observational astrophysics"[1]
Reward(s)	Medal
First awarded	1974[2]
Last awarded	2022
Currently held by	Catherine Heymans
Website	http://www.ras.org.uk/awards-and-grants/awards/2272-herschel-medal

The Herschel Medal is awarded by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) for "investigations of outstanding merit in observational astrophysics". It is awarded for a single piece of work so that younger scientists can be candidates for the award.^[1] It is named after the RAS's first president, William Herschel.^[3] The medal was first awarded in 1974. From 1974 to 2004 the Herschel Medal was only awarded every three years. From 2004 the frequency was shortened to two years and from 2012 it will be awarded annually. The medal has been shared twice, in 1977 and 1986. It has been awarded 23 times to a total of 25 people (23 men, two women), mostly from the UK.^[2][4]

Medallists

Source: Royal Astronomical Society

Photo	Year	Medalist(s)	Field	References
	1974	John Paul Wild	Radio astronomy	[2]
	1977	Arno Penzias Robert Woodrow Wilson	Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation	[2]
	1980	Gérard de Vaucouleurs	Galaxy classification and cataloging	[2][5]
	1983	William W. Morgan	Stellar classification	[2][6]
	1986	Albert Boggess Robert Wilson	Ultraviolet astronomy	[2]
	1989	Jocelyn Bell Burnell	Pulsars	[2]
	1992	Andrew Lyne	Radio astronomy	[2]
	1995	George Isaak	Helioseismology	[2]
	1998	Gerry Neugebauer	Infrared astronomy	[2]
	2001	Patrick Thaddeus	Structure and distribution of molecular clouds	[2]
	2004	Keith Horne	Cataclysmic variable stars and exoplanets	[2][7]
	2006	Govind Swarup	Radio astronomy	[2][8]
	2008	Max Pettini	Extragalactic cosmology	[2][3]
	2010	James H. Hough	Polarimetry	[2][9]
	2012	Mike Irwin	Digital optical and infrared surveys	[2][10]
	2013	Michael Kramer	Pulsars	[2][11]
	2014	Reinhard Genzel	Galactic and Extragalactic astronomy	[2][12]
	2015	Stephen Eales	Submillimetre astronomy	[4][13]
	2016	James Dunlop	Galaxy formation	[14]
	2017	Simon Lilly	Galaxy evolution	[2]
	2018	Tom Marsh	Doppler Tomography	[15]
	2019	Nial Tanvir	Studies of the Explosive Universe
	2020	Rob Fender	Black hole accretion
	2021	Stephen Smartt	Awarded for his "time-domain studies of transient phenomena, leading ground-breaking progress in our understanding of core collapse supernova and of gravitational wave kilonovae."	[16]
	2022	Catherine Heymans	Weak Gravitational Lensing, and measurement of fundamental cosmological parameters.	[17]
	2023	^[needs update]
	2024	Roberta Humphreys	Stellar astrophysics	[18]

See also

• List of astronomy awards

References

1. "Awards, Medals and Prizes - Herschel Medal". RAS. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
2. "Herschel Medal Winners" (PDF). RAS. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
3. "Leading astronomers and geophysicists honoured with RAS medals and prizes". RAS. 8 January 2008. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
4. "Winners of the 2015 awards, medals and prizes - full details". RAS. 9 January 2015. Archived from the original on 9 January 2015. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
5. "1980 Jan 13 meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society". The Observatory. 100: 53. 1980. Bibcode:1980Obs...100...53.
6. "1983 May 13 meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society". The Observatory. 103: 225. 1983. Bibcode:1983Obs...103..225.
7. "Royal Astronomical Society announces 2004 medals and awards". RAS. 2 March 2005. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
8. "Citation for Professor Govind Swarup for The Herschel Medal" (PDF). RAS. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
9. "RAS Honours Outstanding Astronomers and Geophysicists". RAS. 22 March 2010. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
10. "RAS honours leading astronomers and geophysicists". RAS. 23 January 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
11. "Winners of the 2013 awards, medals and prizes - full details". RAS. 10 January 2013. Archived from the original on 9 February 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
12. "Winners of the 2014 awards, medals and prizes - full details". RAS. 10 January 2014. Archived from the original on 28 March 2014. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
13. "Cardiff University astronomers honoured for helping to improve our understanding of the universe". Wales Online. 9 January 2015. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
14. "RAS honours leading astronomers and geophysicist". RAS. 8 January 2015. Archived from the original on 20 July 2016. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
15. "RAS medals and awards honour leading astronomers and geophysicists". Archived from the original on 2018-01-14. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
16. https://ras.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2021-01/Smartt_Stephen_Herschel.pdf Herschel Medal - Professor Stephen J. Smartt (Short citation), date: 06/01/2021, viewed on 31st October 2021.
17. https://ras.ac.uk/sites/default/files/RAS%20Herschel%20Medal%202022%20-%20Professor%20Catherine%20Heymans.pdf Herschel Medal - Professor Catherine Heymans (Short citation), date: 06/01/2022.
18. Tonkin, Sam (12 January 2024). "Royal Astronomical Society unveils 2024 award winners" (Press release). Royal Astronomical Society. Retrieved 12 January 2024.