Awards and Prizes

Professor Isobel Hook

Caroline Herschel Medal 2025

Professor of Astrophysics Isobel Hook received the Caroline Herschel Medal 2025 for her work on creating next-generation astronomical facilities such as the future Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) in enhancing our ability to probe the faintest and most distant cosmic phenomena, and her contributions to 4MOST, Euclid and the Rubin Observatory in advancing large-scale surveys of dark energy and galaxy evolution.

The Caroline Herschel Medal – with an accompanying prize of £10,000 supported by the UK Government – is jointly awarded by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) and German Astronomical Society (Astronomische Gesellschaft, AG). It commemorates the legacy of Caroline Herschel, a distinguished astronomer working in the late 18th and the first half of the 19th century who made a number of groundbreaking discoveries, including several comets.

Professor Janne Ruostekoski

Joseph Thomson Medal 2024

Professor Janne Ruostekoski Chair in Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics, was awarded the Joseph Thomson Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics for his outstanding contributions to the fundamental understanding of cooperative interactions between light and atomic ensembles, as well as for pioneering efforts in harnessing these interactions for applications.

The Joseph Thomson Medal and Prize has been awarded biennially since 2008 to physicists performing distinguished research in atomic or molecular physics.

Professor Mike Kosch

Dennis Gabor Medal and Prize 2024

Professor Mike Kosch received the Institute of Physics' Dennis Gabor Medal and Prize for image processing techniques, derived from pioneering auroral research, that have been deployed in hundreds of automated cameras for wildfire detection, realising huge savings in timber and CO2 emissions. The Dennis Gabor Medal and Prize is awarded annually for distinguished contributions to the application of physics in an industrial, commercial or business context.

Professor Kosch's company has deployed over 340 camera systems so far around the world, mainly in South Africa and North America but also in Ghana and Australia, with trials underway in Chile, China, Indonesia, Greece and Spain. In North America, it is estimated that ForestWatch systems have saved £1.6 billion in timber and 38 million tonnes of CO2, valued at £1.9 billion in the period 2014 to 2020.

Dr Samuli Autti

Nicholas Kurti Science Prize 2023

Dr Samuli Autti was awarded the 2023 Nicholas Kurti Science Prize by Oxford Instruments for his work on macroscopic quantum systems at ultra-low temperatures, leading the way to understanding exotic topological defects, time crystals and their interactions, the decay of quantum turbulence, and the microstructure of unconventional superfluids.

The Prize is awarded annually for research excellence to promote and recognise the novel work of early career scientists in the fields of low temperatures and/or high magnetic fields in Europe.

Professor Farideh Honary

Royal Astronomical Service Award 2022

Professor Farideh Honary was awarded the 2022 Royal Astronomical Society Service Award for services to Geophysics at the annual RAS meeting. Professor Honary has played a leading role in establishing the field of radio science within space plasma physics in the UK, and in representing the community internationally. She established what is now the Space and Planetary Physics Group at Lancaster University and later founded and led the consortium for the Global Riometer Array (GLORIA), an international collaborative program with over 13 countries.

The Service Award is to honour individuals or team leaders who, through outstanding or exceptional work, have promoted, facilitated or encouraged the sciences of astronomy or geophysics and developed their role nationally or internationally.

Dr Licia Ray

Royal Astronomical Society James Dungey Lectureship 2022

Dr Licia Ray was awarded the RAS James Dungey Lectureship 2022 at the annual meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society for her work on the science of how planetary atmospheres couple to their local space environments, focusing on gas giant planets. In particular, she worked on developing a steady-state model of the magnetosphere-ionosphere current system at Jupiter that can reproduce many of the observed characteristics of Jupiter's auroral structure.

The James Dungey Lectureship is given annually to an authoritative and engaging speaker on topics relating to geophysics (including solar physics, solar-terrestrial physics, or planetary sciences).

Professor Colin Lambert

Mott Medal and Prize 2022

Professor Colin Lambert was awarded the Institute of Physics Mott Medal and Prize in 2022 for his visionary theories of quantum-interference-enhanced, molecular-scale electron and phonon transport, which underpin recent designs for molecular-scale memories, sensors, switches and ultra-thin-film thermoelectric materials.

The Mott Medal and Prize is awarded biennially for distinguished contributions to condensed matter physics and materials.

Professor Jim Wild

Royal Astronomical Society James Dungey Lectureship 2018

Professor Jim Wild was awarded the RAS James Dungey Lectureship 2018 at the annual meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society for his work in the field of space plasma physics, notably on the aurora borealis, the impact of space weather on human technology and the interaction between the Martian atmosphere and the interplanetary environment.