Congratulations to Professor Mark Burchell and Dr Dirk Froebrich from the School of Engineering, Mathematics and Physics whose significant achievements have been recognised by the Royal Astronomical Society’s annual awards.
Dr Froebrich, a Reader in Astronomy and Astrophysics and Director of the Beacon Observatory on the University’s Canterbury campus has received a Higher Education Award in recognition of his exemplar supervision at undergraduate and postgraduate level. He teaches a range of astrophysics and astronomy modules including Star Formation and Galactic Structure and Observational Astronomy and Exoplanets. He also leads the Data Analysis and Investigation laboratory courses for the Physics with Astrophysics and Astronomy, Space Science and Astrophysics degrees.
Speaking of the award, he said: ‘I’m really delighted to receive this award from the Royal Astronomical Society. The Beacon Observatory started as a way to give our students the chance to do real astronomy, using real data, right here on campus. Seeing students, schools and amateur astronomers work together on projects that genuinely contribute to research has been incredibly rewarding, and I’m very thankful to everyone at Kent and in the wider community who helped turn that idea into something special.’
Meanwhile, Professor Burchell, an Emeritus Professor of Space Science, has been presented with the Service Award for his outstanding work in facilitating the advancement of his field. Having joined Kent as a lecturer in Space Science in 1993, he was then promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2000, Reader in 2002 and Professor in 2007, and served as Dean of Science from 2010-2020.
Professor Burchell said: ‘It was an honour and surprise just to be nominated, to win is even more so. Kent has a long history of studies in space science dating back to the 1960s under Tony McDonnell, who set up (and for several decades led) a lab looking at cosmic dust and impacts in space. I then ran the lab for many years, and it is now going from strength to strength under the current leadership of Dr Penelope Wozniakiewicz. During those years there have been a lot of staff, post-docs, PhD students and undergraduates (who hopefully enjoyed their space science lectures and final year projects!). It has been wonderful to work at Kent, meeting these people, and collaborating nationally and world-wide with leading figures in the field. Solar system research is an exciting field in which to work, with lots of great people. The subject has grown enormously, both nationally and internationally, over the last few decades, and it has been a joy to be part of that.’
Each year the RAS recognises significant achievement in the fields of astronomy and geophysics through a number of awards, medals and prizes, encompassing different types of talent from research to education and outreach. This year’s awards will be presented in-person at the annual National Astronomy Meeting taking place in Birmingham from 20-24 July.
Professor Mike Lockwood, President of the RAS and a past Gold Medal winner, said: ‘I want to give my warmest congratulations to all the award winners.
My thanks go to those who serve on our awards panels and the RAS staff who help them – they have done a truly fantastic job – and it is a very difficult job indeed because all the nominations were very deserving cases.’