Catherine Heymans from Edinburgh conducts research in Bochum as a visiting scientist with a highly endowed prize. © Maverick Photo Agency

Great honor Catherine Heymans is the first female “Astronomer Royal for Scotland”

The distinguished expert on dark matter has thus been awarded a very special honorary title.

A renowned astrophysicist and investigator into one of science’s great unsolved mysteries has become the first woman to be appointed as “Astronomer Royal for Scotland”. Professor Catherine Heymans, a world-leading expert on the physics of the so-called dark universe, has been awarded the prestigious title, which dates back almost 200 years.

Heymans was recommended to the Queen for the role by an international panel, convened by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She is Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the German Centre for Cosmological Lensing at RUB.

Her research seeks to shed light on the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter – elusive entities that together account for more than 95 per cent of the Universe.

Published

Thursday
27 May 2021
9:56 am

By

Jens Wylkop (jwy)
Corin Campbell
University of Edinburgh

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