Congratulations to Prof. Catherine Heymans who was today officially announced as the new Astronomer Royal for Scotland and the first woman to hold the post. Catherine is also our new Honorary President.
Catherine kindly allowed us to leak the news at our meeting last Thursday when she gave an amazing talk on The Dark Side of the Universe. She studies the dark matter and dark energy that make up 95% of our universe. We had a very large, international audience following the talk on YouTube and the chat was really buzzing with interest and questions. A real highlight for us and she really is an enthusiastic and infectious communicator of astronomy.
The news was covered on the BBC News site and Catherine also gave a great interview on BBC’s Woman’s Hour. Listen on BBC Sounds from 30m 50s.
In her role as 11th Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Catherine hopes to be able to put a telescope in every outdoor centre in Scotland so that the young people who visit them will be able to learn about the wonders of our night sky.
She will also be taking part in the Losing the Sky event that we are hosting on 15 June.