Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society

Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
The RAS gold medal awarded
to Asaph Hall in 1879
Awarded forAchievement in astronomy or geophysics
CountryUnited Kingdom
RewardMedal
First award1824[1]
Final award2026
Currently held byShrinivas Kulkarni & Andrew Jackson
Websitehttps://ras.ac.uk/awards-and-grants/awards 

The Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society is the highest award given by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). It usually recognises lifetime achievement in the fields supported by the RAS, but has occasionally been given for an individual discovery.

Two medals are awarded per year, one in astronomy (including astrophysics, cosmology etc.) and one in geophysics (including planetary science, tectonics etc.) The medal features an image of the 40-foot telescope constructed by Sir William Herschel, the first President of the RAS. All recipients are listed below.

Criteria

The RAS Council have "complete freedom as to the grounds on which it is awarded"[2] so it can be awarded for any reason.[3] Past awards have been given for "outstanding personal researches in the fields of astronomy and geophysics" as well as general contributions to astronomy and geophysics "that may be made through leadership in research programmes, through education and through scientific administration". It has most frequently been awarded for extraordinary lifetime achievement,[2][3] but occasionally for specific pieces of research.[2]

History

The RAS was founded in 1820 and the first Gold Medals were awarded in 1824. Silver medals were also awarded in 1824 and 1827,[1] but that practice was quickly abandoned, instead the RAS established other awards.

In the early years, the RAS Council sometimes decided that there were no suitable nominations that merited the award of the gold medal. There are therefore 17 years without an award, the most recent being 1942 - on that occasion due to the disruption of the Second World War. In the early years, more than one medal was often awarded in a year, but by 1833 only one medal was being awarded per year. This remained the usual practice for over a century, although two medals were awarded in both 1867 and 1886. To ensure balance in research areas, in 1964 the award was expanded to two medals per year, one in astronomy (including astrophysics, cosmology etc.) and one in geophysics (including planetary science, tectonics etc.), which remains the current system.[3]

The first woman to receive the Gold Medal was Caroline Herschel in 1828. No other woman received the award until Vera Rubin in 1996. Margaret and Geoffrey Burbidge were jointly awarded the 2005 Gold Medal in astronomy, the first joint award since 1886.

Discovery of Neptune

From 1833 the RAS only awarded one medal per year, which was enforced by a bye-law.[4] This caused a controversy when Neptune was discovered in 1846. The astronomers Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams had both independently predicted the existence of the planet and calculated its possible positions. The actual observation was by Johann Gottfried Galle, who was working from Le Verrier's prediction.

Le Verrier, Adams and Galle were all nominated for the RAS gold medal by the deadline in November 1846.[4] At that time, Le Verrier was the only one to have formally published his results, so he was selected as the strongest nominee. Adams publicly acknowledged that Le Verrier had priority.[5] However, by the time of the confirmatory vote in January 1847, Adams' publication had also been communicated to the Council.[4] Many members felt that the award should be made jointly to both Adams and Le Verrier, but this was prohibited by the bye-law. The Council did not reach the required 3:1 super-majority to confirm Le Verrier's medal, so none was awarded in 1847.[4]

A special general meeting of the fellows was called to consider suspending the bye-law, but declined to do so.[4] By the following nomination deadline, both Le Verrier and Adams had been nominated again, and there was still no way to honour both without violating the bye-law.[4] The controversy was resolved by giving 12 "testimonial" awards (not gold medals) in 1848 to everyone who had been nominated, which included Adams, Le Verrier, several members of the Council, and two previous winners of the gold medal.[4] Galle was not included, and never received an award from the RAS. Seventy years later, Ralph Allan Sampson described this fudged decision as "prematurely awarding some and unnecessarily rewarding others ... offending against good taste ... and depleting future years of many of their best candidates".[4]

Gold medal awards resumed in 1849, with the limit of one per year.[4] Adams and Le Verrier were not given gold medals until 1866 and 1868, respectively, officially for work unrelated to the discovery of Neptune.[6] Adams, who was then President of the RAS, presented Le Verrier with the medal.[6]

General relativity

In 1919, Arthur Eddington led an expedition to observe the solar eclipse on 29 May. The photographs taken during that event confirmed Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity; Eddington presented his results at a special joint meeting of the RAS and the Royal Society in November 1919.[7] The RAS also devoted their December 1919 meeting to discussion of general relativity. Einstein immediately became the leading candidate for the 2020 RAS Gold Medal.[7]

At that time, RAS Council selected the strongest nominations at its December meeting, which required a simple majority vote.[7] A second vote would then be held in January to confirm that the medal should be awarded, which required a three-quarters super-majority;[7] normally this was a formality. Einstein was nominated by H. H. Turner, seconded by James Jeans, and at the December meeting Council voted that Einstein was the strongest candidate.[7] However, some members of Council felt it would be politically inappropriate to award the medal to a German citizen (Einstein then held German and Swiss joint citizenship), because Britain was still technically engaged in the First World War against Germany[7] (the Treaty of Versailles did not enter into force until 10 January 1920). At the January meeting, Council did not confirm the award. Turner and Jeans were both Council members and had been present at the December meeting, but not in January; their absence may have swayed the outcome.[7]

As a result, no gold medal was awarded in 1920. Embarrassingly, after the December vote Eddington had already passed a message to Einstein, stating that he would receive the medal. Eddington had to write an apologetic letter to Einstein informing him that the medal had been withdrawn.[7] Einstein was again nominated for the 1921 medal, but Council decided that the issue was still too controversial so awarded the medal to Henry Norris Russell instead. Einstein does not appear to have been too offended by the affair, because he attended the June 1921 meeting of the RAS where he delivered a lecture on general relativity. He did not receive his gold medal until 1926, when the political situation had stabilised and the composition of Council had changed.[7] Eddington received his own gold medal in 1924, before Einstein, in part for his work in confirming general relativity.

Recipients

Year Astronomy Geophysics Notes References
1824 Charles Babbage
Johann Franz Encke		 [note 1] [1]
1825 No award
1826 John Herschel
James South
Wilhelm Struve		 [1]
1827 Francis Baily [note 2] [1]
1828 Thomas Makdougall Brisbane
James Dunlop
Caroline Herschel		 [note 3] [1]
1829 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel
William Pearson
Heinrich Christian Schumacher		 [1]
1830 Johann Franz Encke
William Richardson		 [1]
1831 Marie-Charles Damoiseau
Henry Kater		 [1]
1832 No award
1833 George Biddell Airy [1]
1834 No award
1835 Manuel John Johnson [1]
1836 John Herschel [1]
1837 Otto August Rosenberger [1]
1838 No award
1839 John Wrottesley [1]
1840 Jean Plana [1]
1841 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel [1]
1842 Peter Andreas Hansen [1]
1843 Francis Baily [1]
1844 No award
1845 William Henry Smyth [1]
1846 George Biddell Airy [1]
1847 No award see § Discovery of Neptune [1]
1848 No award [note 4] [1]
1849 William Lassell [1]
1850 Otto Wilhelm von Struve [1]
1851 Annibale de Gasparis [1]
1852 Christian August Friedrich Peters [1]
1853 John Russell Hind [1]
1854 Charles Rümker [1]
1855 William Rutter Dawes [1]
1856 Robert Grant [1]
1857 Heinrich Schwabe [1]
1858 Robert Main [1]
1859 Richard Christopher Carrington [1]
1860 Peter Andreas Hansen [1]
1861 Hermann Goldschmidt [1]
1862 Warren de la Rue [1]
1863 Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander [1]
1864 No award
1865 George Phillips Bond [1]
1866 John Couch Adams [1]
1867 William Huggins
William Allen Miller		 [1]
1868 Urbain Le Verrier [1]
1869 Edward James Stone [1]
1870 Charles-Eugène Delaunay [1]
1871 No award
1872 Giovanni Schiaparelli [1]
1873 No award
1874 Simon Newcomb [1]
1875 Heinrich d'Arrest [1]
1876 Urbain Le Verrier [1]
1877 No award
1878 Ercole Dembowski [1]
1879 Asaph Hall [1]
1880 No award
1881 Axel Möller [1]
1882 David Gill [1]
1883 Benjamin Apthorp Gould [1]
1884 Andrew Ainslie Common [1]
1885 William Huggins [1]
1886 Edward Charles Pickering
Charles Pritchard		 [1]
1887 George William Hill [1]
1888 Arthur Auwers [1]
1889 Maurice Loewy [1]
1890 No award
1891 No award
1892 George Howard Darwin [1]
1893 Hermann Carl Vogel [1]
1894 Sherburne Wesley Burnham [1]
1895 Isaac Roberts [1]
1896 Seth Carlo Chandler [1]
1897 E. E. Barnard [1]
1898 William Frederick Denning [1]
1899 Frank McClean [1]
1900 Henri Poincaré [1]
1901 Edward Charles Pickering [1]
1902 Jacobus Kapteyn [1]
1903 Hermann Struve [1]
1904 George Ellery Hale [1]
1905 Lewis Boss [1]
1906 William Wallace Campbell [1]
1907 Ernest William Brown [1]
1908 David Gill [1]
1909 Oskar Backlund [1]
1910 Friedrich Küstner [1]
1911 Philip Herbert Cowell [1]
1912 Arthur Robert Hinks [1]
1913 Henri-Alexandre Deslandres [1]
1914 Max Wolf [1]
1915 Alfred Fowler [1]
1916 John Louis Emil Dreyer [1]
1917 Walter Sydney Adams [1]
1918 John Evershed [1]
1919 Guillaume Bigourdan [1]
1920 No award see § General relativity [1]
1921 Henry Norris Russell [1]
1922 James Jeans [1]
1923 Albert A. Michelson [1]
1924 Arthur Eddington [1]
1925 Frank Watson Dyson [1]
1926 Albert Einstein [1]
1927 Frank Schlesinger [1]
1928 Ralph Allen Sampson [1]
1929 Ejnar Hertzsprung [1]
1930 John Stanley Plaskett [1]
1931 Willem de Sitter [1]
1932 Robert Grant Aitken [1]
1933 Vesto Slipher [1]
1934 Harlow Shapley [1]
1935 Edward Arthur Milne [1]
1936 Hisashi Kimura [1]
1937 Harold Jeffreys [1]
1938 William Hammond Wright [1]
1939 Bernard Lyot [1]
1940 Edwin Hubble [1]
1941 No award
1942 No award
1943 Harold Spencer Jones [1]
1944 Otto Struve [1]
1945 Bengt Edlén [1]
1946 Jan Oort [1]
1947 Marcel Minnaert [1]
1948 Bertil Lindblad [1]
1949 Sydney Chapman [1]
1950 Joel Stebbins [1]
1951 Anton Pannekoek [1]
1952 John Jackson [1]
1953 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar [1]
1954 Walter Baade [1]
1955 Dirk Brouwer [1]
1956 Thomas George Cowling [1]
1957 Albrecht Unsöld [1]
1958 André Danjon [1]
1959 Raymond Arthur Lyttleton [1]
1960 Viktor Ambartsumian [1]
1961 Herman Zanstra [1]
1962 Bengt Strömgren [1]
1963 Harry Hemley Plaskett [1]
1964 Martin Ryle Maurice Ewing [1]
1965 Gerald Maurice Clemence Edward Bullard [1]
1966 Ira Sprague Bowen Harold Clayton Urey [1]
1967 Allan Sandage Hannes Alfvén [1]
1968 Fred Hoyle Walter Munk [1]
1969 Martin Schwarzschild Albert Thomas Price [1]
1970 Horace W. Babcock [1]
1971 Richard van der Riet Woolley Frank Press [1]
1972 Fritz Zwicky Hal Thirlaway [1]
1973 Edwin Salpeter Francis Birch [1]
1974 Ludwig Biermann Keith Bullen [1]
1975 Jesse Greenstein Ernst Öpik [1]
1976 William McCrea J. A. Ratcliffe [1]
1977 John Bolton David Bates [1]
1978 Lyman Spitzer James Van Allen [1]
1979 Charles Gorrie Wynne Leon Knopoff [1]
1980 Maarten Schmidt Chaim L. Pekeris [1]
1981 Bernard Lovell James Freeman Gilbert [1]
1982 Riccardo Giacconi Harrie Massey [1]
1983 M. J. Seaton Fred Whipple [1]
1984 Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich Keith Runcorn [1]
1985 Stephen Hawking Thomas Gold [1]
1986 Alexander Dalgarno George E. Backus [1]
1987 Martin Rees Takesi Nagata [1]
1988 Cornelis de Jager Don L. Anderson [1]
1989 Ken Pounds Raymond Hide [1]
1990 Bernard Pagel James Dungey [1]
1991 Vitaly Ginzburg Gerald J. Wasserburg [1]
1992 Eugene Parker Dan McKenzie [1]
1993 Donald Lynden-Bell Peter Goldreich [1]
1994 James Gunn Thomas Reeve Kaiser [1]
1995 Rashid Sunyaev John Houghton [1]
1996 Vera Rubin Kenneth Creer [note 3] [1]
1997 Donald Osterbrock Donald Farley [1]
1998 Jim Peebles Robert L. Parker [1]
1999 Bohdan Paczyński Kenneth Budden [1]
2000 Leon Lucy Robert Hutchison [1][8]
2001 Hermann Bondi Henry Rishbeth [1]
2002 Leon Mestel John Arthur Jacobs [1]
2003 John Bahcall David Gubbins [1]
2004 Jerry Ostriker Grenville Turner [1]
2005 Margaret Burbidge
Geoffrey Burbidge		 Carole Jordan [note 5] [1]
2006 Simon White Stan Cowley [1]
2007 Leonard Culhane Nigel Weiss [1]
2008 Joseph Silk Brian Kennett [1]
2009 David Williams Eric Priest [1][9]
2010 Douglas Gough John Woodhouse [1][10]
2011 Richard Ellis Eberhard Grün [1][11]
2012 Andy Fabian John Brown [1][12]
2013 Roger Blandford Chris Chapman [1][13]
2014 Carlos Frenk John Zarnecki [1][14]
2015 Michel Mayor Mike Lockwood [3]
2016 John Barrow Philip England [15]
2017 Nick Kaiser Michele Dougherty [16]
2018 Jim Hough Bob White [17]
2019 Robert Kennicutt Margaret Kivelson [18]
2020 Sandra Faber Yvonne Elsworth [19]
2021 Jocelyn Bell Burnell Thorne Lay [20]
2022 George Efstathiou Richard B. Horne [21]
2023 John Peacock Tim Palmer [22]
2024 Gilles Chabrier John-Michael Kendall [23]
2025 James Binney Jonathan Tennyson [24]
2026 Shrinivas Kulkarni Andrew Jackson [25]
  1. ^ Silver medalists: Jean-Louis Pons, Charles Rümker
  2. ^ Silver medalists: Mark Beaufoy, William Samuel Stratford
  3. ^ a b The first woman to receive the Gold Medal was Caroline Herschel in 1828. No other woman did so until Vera Rubin in 1996.
  4. ^ Replaced by testimonial medals, awarded to John Couch Adams, George Biddell Airy, Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander, George Bishop, George Everest, Peter Andreas Hansen, Karl Ludwig Hencke, John Herschel, John Russell Hind, John William Lubbock, Urbain Le Verrier & Maxmilian Weisse
  5. ^ Margaret and Geoffrey Burbidge received the first joint award since 1886

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn bo bp bq br bs bt bu bv bw bx by bz ca cb cc cd ce cf cg ch ci cj ck cl cm cn co cp cq cr cs ct cu cv cw cx cy cz da db dc dd de df dg dh di dj dk dl dm dn do dp dq dr ds dt du dv dw dx dy dz ea eb ec ed ee ef eg eh ei ej ek el em en eo ep eq er es et eu ev ew ex ey ez fa fb fc fd fe ff fg fh fi fj fk fl fm fn fo fp fq fr fs ft fu fv fw "The Gold Medal" (PDF). Royal Astronomical Society. 2021. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "Gold Medal (A)". RAS. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d "Winners of the 2015 awards, medals and prizes - full details". 9 January 2015. Archived from the original on 9 January 2015. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sampson, R. A. (1987) [1923]. "The Decade 1840-1850". In Dreyer, J.L.E.; Turner, H.H. (eds.). History of the Royal Astronomical Society: Volume 1, 1820–1920. London: Royal Astronomical Society. pp. 97–99.
  5. ^ Adams, J. C. (13 November 1846). "An Explanation of the observed Irregularities in the Motion of Uranus, on the Hypothesis of Disturbance caused by a more distant Planet; with a Determination of the Mass, Orbit, and Position of the disturbing Body". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 7 (9): 149–152. Bibcode:1846MNRAS...7..149A. doi:10.1093/mnras/7.9.149.
  6. ^ a b Newall, H. F. (1987) [1923]. "The Decade 1860-1870". In Dreyer, J.L.E.; Turner, H.H. (eds.). History of the Royal Astronomical Society: Volume 1, 1820–1920. London: Royal Astronomical Society. pp. 158–162.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Dingle, Herbert; Tayler, Roger (1987). "The Decade 1920-30". In Tayler, Roger (ed.). History of the Royal Astronomical Society: Volume 2, 1920–1980. London: Royal Astronomical Society. pp. 20–21.
  8. ^ "News: Appointments and awards". Astronomy & Geophysics. 41 (4): 7. 2000. Bibcode:2000A&G....41d...7.. doi:10.1046/j.1468-4004.2000.00404-9.x.
  9. ^ "RAS meeting and Community Forum - JENAM 2009". Archived from the original on February 17, 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2009.
  10. ^ "RAS Honours Outstanding Astronomers and Geophysicists". Royal Astronomical Society. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
  11. ^ "RAS honours outstanding astronomers and geophysicists". Royal Astronomical Society. 19 January 2011. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
  12. ^ "RAS honours leading astronomers and geophysicists". Royal Astronomical Society. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  13. ^ "2013 winners of the RAS awards, medals and prizes". Royal Astronomical Society. 10 January 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-01-20. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  14. ^ "2014 winners of the RAS awards, medals and prizes". Royal Astronomical Society. 10 January 2014. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
  15. ^ "RAS honours leading astronomers and geophysicist". RAS. 8 January 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-07-20. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  16. ^ "RAS honours leading astronomers and geophysicists". Royal Astronomical Society. 11 January 2017. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  17. ^ "The Royal Astronomical Society". Archived from the original on 2018-03-01. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  18. ^ Morgan Hollis (9 January 2019). "Leading astronomers and geophysicists honoured by Royal Astronomical Society". Royal Astronomical Society. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  19. ^ "Leading astronomers and geophysicists honoured in RAS bicentenary year". Royal Astronomical Society. 10 January 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  20. ^ "Royal Astronomical Society Honours Stars of Astronomy and Geophysics". Royal Astronomical Society (Press release). 8 January 2021.
  21. ^ Gurjeet, Kahlon (11 January 2022). "Royal Astronomical Society reveals 2022 award winners". Royal Astronomical Society. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  22. ^ Massey, Robert (13 January 2023). "Royal Astronomical Society unveils 2023 award winners". Royal Astronomical Society. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
  23. ^ Tonkin, Sam (12 January 2024). "Royal Astronomical Society unveils 2024 award winners" (Press release). Royal Astronomical Society. Retrieved 12 January 2024.
  24. ^ Tonkin, Sam (10 January 2025). "Pioneering physicist and galaxy luminary among 2025 RAS award winners" (Press release). Royal Astronomical Society. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
  25. ^ Tonkin, Sam (9 January 2026). "Winners of 2026 RAS Awards revealed" (Press release). Royal Astronomical Society. Retrieved 19 January 2026.
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