The
Gold Medal is the highest award of the
Royal Astronomical SocietyThe Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society that began as the Astronomical Society of London in 1820 to support astronomical research . It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving its Royal Charter from William IV...
.
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 caused a problem when
NeptuneNeptune is the eighth planet from the Sun in our Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third-largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 Earth masses and...
was discovered in 1846, because many felt an award should jointly be made to
John Couch AdamsJohn Couch Adams was a British mathematician and astronomer. Adams was born in Laneast, near Launceston, Cornwall and died in Cambridge. The Cornish name Couch is pronounced "cooch"....
and
Urbain Le VerrierUrbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier was a French mathematician who specialized in celestial mechanics and is best known for his part in the discovery of Neptune.- Early life and career :...
. A controversy arose and no award was made in 1847.
The controversy was resolved by giving 12 "testimonial" awards in 1848 to various people including Adams and Le Verrier, and in 1849 awards resumed, with a limit of one per year.
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The
Gold Medal is the highest award of the
Royal Astronomical SocietyThe Royal Astronomical Society is a learned society that began as the Astronomical Society of London in 1820 to support astronomical research . It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving its Royal Charter from William IV...
.
History
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 caused a problem when
NeptuneNeptune is the eighth planet from the Sun in our Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third-largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 Earth masses and...
was discovered in 1846, because many felt an award should jointly be made to
John Couch AdamsJohn Couch Adams was a British mathematician and astronomer. Adams was born in Laneast, near Launceston, Cornwall and died in Cambridge. The Cornish name Couch is pronounced "cooch"....
and
Urbain Le VerrierUrbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier was a French mathematician who specialized in celestial mechanics and is best known for his part in the discovery of Neptune.- Early life and career :...
. A controversy arose and no award was made in 1847.
The controversy was resolved by giving 12 "testimonial" awards in 1848 to various people including Adams and Le Verrier, and in 1849 awards resumed, with a limit of one per year. Adams and Le Verrier did not get their gold medals until 1866 and 1868, respectively. Adams, as President, presented Le Verrier with the medal.
The practice of awarding one medal a year continued until 1963, although two medals were awarded in both 1867 and 1886 and in a few years no award was made. Since 1964 there have been two awards in most years, one for astronomy and one for
geophysicsGeophysics, a major discipline of the Earth sciences and a subdiscipline of physics, is the study of the whole Earth by the quantitative observation of its physical properties. Geophysical data are used in academics to observe tectonic plate motions, study the internal structure of the Earth,...
.
Gold Medal laureates
- 1824 Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage, FRS was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer. Parts of his uncompleted mechanisms are on display in the London Science Museum. In 1991, a perfectly functioning difference engine was...
, Johann Franz EnckeJohann Franz Encke was a German astronomer, born in Hamburg. He is sometimes confused with Karl Ludwig Hencke, another German astronomer.-Biography:...
- 1826 John Herschel
Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet KH, FRS was an English mathematician, astronomer, chemist, and experimental photographer/inventor, who in some years also did valuable botanical work. He was the son of astronomer Sir William Herschel and the father of 12 children.Herschel originated...
, James SouthSir James South was a British astronomer.He helped found the Astronomical Society of London, and it was under his name that a petition was successfully submitted to obtain a royal charter in 1831, whereupon it became the Royal Astronomical Society.South and John Herschel jointly produced a...
, Wilhelm Struve
- 1827 Francis Baily
Francis Baily was an British astronomer, most famous for his observations of 'Baily's beads' during an eclipse of the Sun.-Life:Baily was born at Newbury in Berkshire in 1774...
- 1828 Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, James Dunlop
James Dunlop was an astronomer assistant hired by Sir Thomas Brisbane at his private observatory located in Parramatta, New South Wales, about 23 kilometres west of Sydney, Australia during the 1820s and '30's...
, Caroline HerschelCaroline Lucretia Herschel was a German-born English astronomer, the sister of astronomer Sir William Herschel with whom she worked throughout both of their careers...
- 1829 William Pearson
William Pearson may refer to:* William Pearson , English music printer* William Pearson , English astronomer who helped found the Royal Astronomical Society...
, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, Heinrich Christian SchumacherHeinrich Christian Schumacher was a German astronomer. He was born at Bramstedt, in Holstein.He was director of the Mannheim observatory from 1813 to 1815, and then became professor of astronomy in Copenhagen...
- 1830 William Richardson, Johann Franz Encke
Johann Franz Encke was a German astronomer, born in Hamburg. He is sometimes confused with Karl Ludwig Hencke, another German astronomer.-Biography:...
- 1831 Henry Kater
Henry Kater , English physicist of German descent, was born at Bristol.At first he purposed to study law; but this he abandoned on his father's death in 1794, and entered the army, obtaining a commission in the 12th regiment of foot, then stationed in India, where he rendered valuable assistance to...
, Marie-Charles DamoiseauBaron Marie-Charles-Théodore de Damoiseau de Montfort was a French astronomer.Damoiseau left France during the French Revolution and worked as assistant director of the Lisbon Observatory. He returned to France in 1807.In 1825, he was elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences...
- 1833 George Biddell Airy
Sir George Biddell Airy FRS was an English mathematician and astronomer, Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881. His many achievements include work on planetary orbits, measuring the mean density of the Earth, a method of solution of two-dimensional problems in solid mechanics and, in his role as...
- 1835 Manuel J. Johnson
- 1836 John Herschel
Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet KH, FRS was an English mathematician, astronomer, chemist, and experimental photographer/inventor, who in some years also did valuable botanical work. He was the son of astronomer Sir William Herschel and the father of 12 children.Herschel originated...
- 1837 Otto A. Rosenberger
- 1839 John Wrottesley
John Wrottesley, 2nd Baron Wrottesley FRS FRAS was an English astronomer.
Peter Andreas HansenPeter Andreas Hansen was a Danish astronomer, was born at Tønder, Schleswig.The son of a goldsmith, he learned the trade of a watchmaker at Flensburg, and exercised it at Berlin and Tønder, 1818–1820...
- 1843 Francis Baily
Francis Baily was an British astronomer, most famous for his observations of 'Baily's beads' during an eclipse of the Sun.-Life:Baily was born at Newbury in Berkshire in 1774...
- 1845 William Henry Smyth
William Henry Smyth was an English sailor and astronomer. He was the father of Charles Piazzi Smyth, Sir Warington Wilkinson Smyth and General Sir Henry Augustus Smyth...
- 1846 George Biddell Airy
Sir George Biddell Airy FRS was an English mathematician and astronomer, Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881. His many achievements include work on planetary orbits, measuring the mean density of the Earth, a method of solution of two-dimensional problems in solid mechanics and, in his role as...
- 1849 William Lassell
William Lassell was an English astronomer.Born in Bolton, he made his fortune as a beer brewer, which enabled him to indulge his interest in astronomy. He built an observatory near Liverpool with a reflector telescope, for which he pioneered the use of an equatorial mount for easy tracking of...
- 1850 Otto Wilhelm Struve
- 1851 Annibale de Gasparis
Annibale de Gasparis was an Italian astronomer. From 1864 to 1889 he was the director of the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte in Naples.He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1851....
- 1852 Christian August Friedrich Peters
Christian August Friedrich Peters was a German astronomer. He was the father of astronomer Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Peters.He was born in Hamburg and died in Kiel....
- 1853 John Russell Hind
John Russell Hind FRS was an English astronomer. Some sources give his name as John Russel Hind with only one "L". However, 19th century British astronomical magazines consistently spell his name with two "L"s....
- 1854 Charles Rümker
- 1855 William Rutter Dawes
William Rutter Dawes was an English astronomer.Dawes was born in West Sussex, the son of William Dawes, also an astronomer, who travelled to the colony of New South Wales on the First Fleet in 1788....
- 1856 Robert Grant
- 1857 Heinrich Schwabe
Samuel Heinrich Schwabe a German astronomer remembered for his work on sunspots.Schwabe was born at Dessau. At first an apothecary, he turned his attention to astronomy, and in 1826 commenced his observations on sunspots. Schwabe was trying to discover a new planet inside the orbit of Mercury...
- 1858 Robert Main
The Reverend Robert Main was an English astronomer.Born in Kent, the eldest son of Thomas Main, Robert Main attended school in Portsea before studying mathematics at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he graduated as sixth wrangler in 1834...
- 1859 Richard Christopher Carrington
Richard Christopher Carrington was an English amateur astronomer whose 1859 astronomical observations first corroborated the existence of solar flares as well as their electrical influence upon the Earth and its aurorae; and whose 1863 records of sunspot observations demonstrated differential...
- 1860 Peter Andreas Hansen
Peter Andreas Hansen was a Danish astronomer, was born at Tønder, Schleswig.The son of a goldsmith, he learned the trade of a watchmaker at Flensburg, and exercised it at Berlin and Tønder, 1818–1820...
- 1861 Hermann Goldschmidt
- 1862 Warren de la Rue
Warren De la Rue was a British astronomer and chemist, most famous for his pioneering work in astronomical photography.-Biography:...
- 1863 Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander
Friedrich Wilhelm August Argelander was a German astronomer. He is known for his determinations of stellar brightnesses, positions, and distances.- Life and work :...
- 1865 George Phillips Bond
George Phillips Bond was an American astronomer. He was the son of William Cranch Bond. Some sources give his year of birth as 1826....
- 1866 John Couch Adams
John Couch Adams was a British mathematician and astronomer. Adams was born in Laneast, near Launceston, Cornwall and died in Cambridge. The Cornish name Couch is pronounced "cooch"....
- 1867 William Huggins
Sir William Huggins, OM, FRS was an English astronomer best known for his pioneering work in astronomical spectroscopy.- Life and work :...
, William Allen MillerWilliam Allen Miller FRS was a British scientist.He was educated at King's College London and upon the death of John Frederic Daniell succeeded to the Chair of Chemistry at King's...
- 1868 Urbain Le Verrier
Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier was a French mathematician who specialized in celestial mechanics and is best known for his part in the discovery of Neptune.- Early life and career :...
- 1869 Edward James Stone
Edward James Stone was an English astronomer.He was born in Notting Hill, London to Roger and Elizabeth Stone...
- 1870 Charles-Eugène Delaunay
Charles-Eugène Delaunay was a French astronomer and mathematician. His lunar motion studies were important in advancing both the theory of planetary motion and mathematics.-Life:...
- 1872 Giovanni Schiaparelli
Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli was an Italian astronomer and science historian. He studied at the University of Turin and Berlin Observatory. In 1859-1860 he worked in Pulkovo Observatory and then worked for over forty years at Brera Observatory...
- 1874 Simon Newcomb
Simon Newcomb was a Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician. Though he had little conventional schooling, he made important contributions to timekeeping as well as writing on economics and statistics and authoring a science fiction novel.-Early life:Simon Newcomb was born in the town of...
- 1875 Heinrich d'Arrest
- 1876 Urbain Le Verrier
Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier was a French mathematician who specialized in celestial mechanics and is best known for his part in the discovery of Neptune.- Early life and career :...
- 1878 Ercole Dembowski
Ercole Dembowski was an Italian astronomer.He was born in Milan. He inherited the title of "Baron" as the son of Jan Dembowski , one of Napoleon's Polish generals. He served in the navy of Austria-Hungary until 1843.He was a tireless observer of double stars and made tens of thousands of...
- 1879 Asaph Hall
Asaph Hall III was an American astronomer who is most famous for having discovered the moons of Mars in 1877...
- 1881 Axel Möller
Didrik Magnus Axel Möller was a Swedish astronomer.He matriculated as a student at Lund University in 1846, received his Ph.D. in 1853 and was Professor of Astronomy there from 1863 until 1895....
- 1882 David Gill
- 1883 Benjamin A. Gould
- 1884 Andrew Ainslie Common
Andrew Ainslie Common FRS was an English astronomer born in Newcastle Upon Tyne.Among other things, he observed the satellites of Mars and Saturn. He worked on astrophotography, making a celebrated early photograph of the Orion Nebula in 1883...
- 1885 William Huggins
Sir William Huggins, OM, FRS was an English astronomer best known for his pioneering work in astronomical spectroscopy.- Life and work :...
- 1886 Edward Charles Pickering
Edward Charles Pickering was an American astronomer and physicist, brother of William Henry Pickering.Along with Carl Vogel, Pickering discovered the first spectroscopic binary stars. He wrote Elements of Physical Manipulations .Pickering attended Boston Latin School, and received his B.S. from...
, Charles PritchardCharles Pritchard was a British astronomer.He was born at Alberbury, Shropshire. At sixteen he was enrolled as a sizar at St John's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1830 as fourth wrangler. In 1832 he was elected a fellow of his college, and in the following year he was ordained, and became head...
- 1887 George William Hill
George William Hill , was a U.S. astronomer and mathematician.Hill was born in New York City, New York, son of the painter and engraver John William Hill and Catherine Smith Hill. He moved to West Nyack with his family when he was eight years old. After attending high school, Hill graduated from...
- 1888 Arthur Auwers
Georg Friedrich Julius Arthur von Auwers was a German astronomer.Auwers was born in Göttingen, attended the University of Göttingen and worked at the University of Königsberg. He specialized in astrometry, making very precise measurements of stellar positions and motions...
- 1889 Maurice Loewy
Maurice Loewy was a French astronomer.Born in Mariánské Lázne, in what is now the Czech Republic, Loewy's Jewish parents moved to Vienna in 1841 to escape the antisemitism of their home town. Loewy became an assistant at the Vienna Observatory, working on celestial mechanics...
- 1892 George Howard Darwin
- 1893 Hermann Carl Vogel
Hermann Carl Vogel was a German astronomer. He was born in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony.Vogel pioneered the use of the spectroscope in astronomy...
- 1894 S. W. Burnham
- 1895 Isaac Roberts
Isaac Roberts was a Welsh astronomer who was a pioneer in photography of nebulae. He was a member of the Liverpool Astronomical Society in England and was a fellow of the Royal Geological Society...
- 1896 Seth Carlo Chandler
Seth Carlo Chandler, Jr. was an American astronomer.He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. During his last year in high school he performed mathematical computations for Benjamin Peirce, of the Harvard College Observatory.After graduating, he became the assistant of Benjamin A. Gould...
- 1897 Edward Emerson Barnard
Edward Emerson Barnard was an American astronomer. He was commonly known as E. E. Barnard, and was recognized as a gifted observational astronomer...
- 1898 William Frederick Denning
William Frederick Denning was a British astronomer.Denning devoted a great deal of time to searching for comets, and discovered several including the periodic comet 72P/Denning-Fujikawa and the lost comet D/1894 F1...
- 1899 Frank McClean
- 1900 Henri Poincaré
Jules Henri Poincaré was a French mathematician and theoretical physicist, and a philosopher of science...
- 1901 Edward Charles Pickering
Edward Charles Pickering was an American astronomer and physicist, brother of William Henry Pickering.Along with Carl Vogel, Pickering discovered the first spectroscopic binary stars. He wrote Elements of Physical Manipulations .Pickering attended Boston Latin School, and received his B.S. from...
- 1902 Jacobus Kapteyn
Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn, was a Dutch astronomer, best known for his extensive studies of the Milky Way and as the first discoverer of evidence for galactic rotation....
- 1903 Hermann Struve
Karl Hermann Struve was a Baltic German astronomer born in Saint Peterburg, Russian Empire, part of the famous Struve family of astronomers...
- 1904 George Ellery Hale
George Ellery Hale was an American solar astronomer, born in Chicago. He was educated at MIT, at the Observatory of Harvard College, , and at Berlin...
- 1905 Lewis Boss
-Life:He was born in Providence, Rhode Island and attended secondary school at the Lapham Institute in North Scituate and the New Hampton Institution in New Hampshire. In 1870 he graduated from Dartmouth College, then went to work as a clerk for the U.S. Government. He served as an assistant...
- 1906 William Wallace Campbell
William Wallace Campbell was an American astronomer, and director of Lick Observatory from 1900 to 1930. He specialized in spectroscopy....
- 1907 Ernest William Brown
Ernest William Brown was a British mathematician and astronomer, who spent the majority of his career working in the United States....
- 1908 David Gill
- 1909 Oskar Backlund
Johan Oskar Backlund was a Swedish-Russian astronomer. His name is sometimes given as Jöns Oskar Backlund, however even contemporary Swedish sources give "Johan". In Russia, where he spent his entire career, he is known as Oskar Andreevich Baklund...
- 1910 Friedrich Küstner
- 1911 Philip Herbert Cowell
Philip Herbert Cowell was a British astronomer.Philip Herbert Cowell was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. He became second chief assistant at the Royal Greenwich Observatory in 1896 and later became the Superintendent of HM Nautical Almanac Office during 1910–1930...
- 1912 Arthur Robert Hinks
- 1913 Henri-Alexandre Deslandres
Henri Alexandre Deslandres was a French astronomer, director of the Meudon and Paris Observatories.Deslandres' undergraduate years at the École Polytechnique were played out against the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War and the chaos of the Paris Commune so, on graduation in 1874, he responded...
- 1914 Max Wolf
Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography...
- 1915 Alfred Fowler
Alfred Fowler was an English astronomer.He was an expert in spectroscopy, being one of the first to determine that the temperature of sunspots was cooler than that of surrounding regions.-Honours:...
- 1916 John L. E. Dreyer
- 1917 Walter Sydney Adams
Walter Sydney Adams was an American astronomer.-Life and work:He was born in Antioch, Syria to missionary parents, and was brought to the U.S. in 1885 He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1898, then continued his education in Germany...
- 1918 John Evershed
John Evershed was an English astronomer. He was the first to observe radial motions in sunspots, a phenomenon known as the Evershed effect....
- 1919 Guillaume Bigourdan
Camille Guillaume Bigourdan was a French astronomer.Bigourdan was born at Sistels, Tarn-et-Garonne. In 1877 he was appointed by Félix Tisserand as assistant astronomer at the Toulouse Observatory, and in 1879 followed Tisserand to the Paris Observatory when the latter became director there.He...
- 1921 Henry Norris Russell
Henry Norris Russell was an American astronomer who, along with Ejnar Hertzsprung, developed the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram ....
- 1922 James Hopwood Jeans
- 1923 Albert A. Michelson
Albert Abraham Michelson was an American physicist known for his work on the measurement of the speed of light and especially for the Michelson-Morley experiment. He is the father of modern theoretical physics. In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics...
- 1924 Arthur Eddington
- 1925 Frank Watson Dyson
Sir Frank Watson Dyson, KBE, FRS was an English astronomer and Astronomer Royal who is remembered today largely for introducing time signals from Greenwich, England, and for the role he played in testing Einstein's theory of general relativity.- Biography :Dyson was born in Measham, near...
- 1926 Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of...
- 1927 Frank Schlesinger
Frank Schlesinger was an American astronomer.He worked at Yerkes Observatory and pioneered the use of photographic methods to determine stellar parallaxes. He was director of Allegheny Observatory from 1905 to 1920 and Yale University Observatory from 1920 to 1941.He made major contributions to...
- 1928 Ralph Allen Sampson
Ralph Allen Sampson was a British astronomer.He graduated from St. John's College, Cambridge in 1888. In 1895 he became professor of mathematics at Durham College in Newcastle-on-Tyne. He had been a student of John Couch Adams, and helped to edit and publish Part I of the second volume of Adams'...
- 1929 Ejnar Hertzsprung
Ejnar Hertzsprung was a Danish chemist and astronomer.Hertzsprung was born at Copenhagen. In the period 1911-1913, together with Henry Norris Russell, he developed the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram....
- 1930 John Stanley Plaskett
John Stanley Plaskett was a Canadian astronomer.He worked as a machinist, and was offered a job as a mechanician at the Department of Physics at the University of Toronto, constructing apparatuses and assisting with demonstrations during lectures...
- 1931 Willem de Sitter
Willem de Sitter was a Dutch mathematician, physicist and astronomer.Born in Sneek, De Sitter studied mathematics at the University of Groningen and then joined the Groningen astronomical laboratory. He worked at the Cape Observatory in South Africa . Then, in 1908, de Sitter was appointed to the...
- 1932 Robert Grant Aitken
Robert Grant Aitken was an American astronomer.He worked at Lick Observatory in California. He systematically studied double stars, measuring their positions and calculating their orbits around one another...
- 1933 Vesto Slipher
Vesto Melvin Slipher was an American astronomer. His brother Earl C. Slipher was also an astronomer and a director at the Lowell Observatory. His children are son David C. Slipher and daughter Marcia Frances Slipher NicholsonSlipher was born in Mulberry, Indiana, and completed his doctorate at...
- 1934 Harlow Shapley
Harlow Shapley was an American astronomer.-Career:He was born on a farm in Nashville, Missouri, and dropped out of school with only the equivalent of a fifth-grade education...
- 1935 E. Arthur Milne
- 1936 Hisashi Kimura
Hisashi Kimura was a Japanese astronomer originally from Kanazawa, Ishikawa.He devoted his career to the study and measurement of variation in latitude, building upon the work of Seth Carlo Chandler, who discovered the Chandler wobble...
- 1937 Harold Jeffreys
Sir Harold Jeffreys, FRS was a mathematician, statistician, geophysicist, and astronomer.-Biography:...
- 1938 William Hammond Wright
William Hammond Wright was an American astronomer. He was director of the Lick Observatory from 1935 until 1942....
- 1939 Bernard Lyot
Bernard Ferdinand Lyot was a French astronomer.His interest in astronomy started in 1914. He soon acquired a telescope and soon upgraded to a . From graduation in 1918 until 1929, he worked as a demonstrator at the Ecole Polytechnique...
- 1940 Edwin Hubble
Edwin Powell Hubble was an American astronomer. He profoundly changed our understanding of the universe by demonstrating the existence of other galaxies besides the Milky Way. He also discovered that the degree of redshift observed in light coming from a galaxy increased in proportion to the...
- 1943 Harold Spencer Jones
Sir Harold Spencer Jones KBE was an English astronomer. Although born "Jones", his surname became "Spencer Jones"....
- 1944 Otto Struve
----Otto Struve was a Ukrainian - Russian-American astronomer. In Russian, his name is sometimes given as Otto Lyudvigovich Struve ; however, he spent most of his life and his entire scientific career in the United States.Otto Struve was one of the few eminent astronomers in the pre-Space...
- 1945 Bengt Edlén
Bengt Edlén was a Swedish professor of physics and astronomer who specialized in spectroscopy. He participated in solving the Corona Mystery: unidentified spectral lines in the sun's spectrum were speculatively believed to originate from a hitherto unidentified chemical element termed coronium...
- 1946 Jan Oort
Jan Hendrik Oort was a Dutch astronomer. He stimulated radio astronomy. The Oort cloud of comets bears his name....
- 1947 Marcel Minnaert
Marcel Gilles Jozef Minnaert was a Belgian astronomer.He obtained a PhD in biology at Ghent University in 1914....
- 1948 Bertil Lindblad
Bertil Lindblad was a Swedish astronomer.After finishing his secondary education at Örebro högre allmänna läroverk, Lindblad matriculated at Uppsala University in 1914...
- 1949 Sydney Chapman
Sydney Chapman FRS was a British mathematician and geophysicist.- Life :Chapman was born in Eccles, near Manchester in England. In 1904 at age 16, Chapman entered the Victoria University of Manchester initially studying engineering in the department headed by Osborne Reynolds...
- 1950 Joel Stebbins
Joel Stebbins was an American astronomer who pioneered photoelectric photometry in astronomy. He earned his Ph.D at the University of California. He was director of University of Illinois observatory from 1903 to 1922 and the Washburn Observatory at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1922...
- 1951 Anton Pannekoek
- 1952 John Jackson
John Jackson was a Scottish astronomer.Born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, he was educated at Paisley Grammar School, studying a range of subjects including the sciences and French and German, but not Latin or Greek, which were compulsory if he intended to sit the entrance examinations for...
- 1953 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, FRS , ) was an Indian American astrophysicist. He was a Nobel laureate in physics along with William Alfred Fowler for their work in the theoretical structure and evolution of stars. He was the nephew of Indian Nobel Laureate Sir C. V...
- 1954 Walter Baade
Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade was a German astronomer who emigrated to the USA in 1931.- Biography :He took advantage of wartime blackout conditions during World War II, which reduced light pollution at Mount Wilson Observatory, to resolve stars in the center of the Andromeda galaxy for the first...
- 1955 Dirk Brouwer
Dirk Brouwer was a Dutch-American astronomer.He received his Ph.D. in 1927 at Leiden University in the Netherlands and then went to Yale University...
- 1956 Thomas George Cowling
Thomas George Cowling was an English astronomer.Cowling was born in Hackney, London and studied mathematics at Brasenose College, Oxford from 1924 to 1930. From 1928 to 1930 he worked under Edward Arthur Milne...
- 1957 Albrecht Unsöld
Albrecht Otto Johannes Unsöld was a German astrophysicist known for his contributions to spectroscopic analysis of stellar atmospheres.-Career:...
- 1958 André Danjon
André-Louis Danjon was a French astronomer born in Caen.Danjon devised a method to measure "Earthshine" on the Moon using a telescope in which a prism split the Moon's image into two identical side-by-side images...
- 1959 Raymond Arthur Lyttleton
- 1960 Viktor Ambartsumian
- 1961 Herman Zanstra
Herman Zanstra was a Dutch astronomer.Zanstra was born near Heerenveen in Friesland. In 1917 he graduated with an Engineer's degree in chemical engineering from the Delft Institute of Technology...
- 1962 Bengt Strömgren
Bengt Georg Daniel Strömgren was a Danish astronomer and astrophysicist.Bengt Strömgren was born in Gothenburg. His parents were Hedvig Strömgren and Svante Elis Strömgren, who was professor of astronomy at the University of Copenhagen and director of the University Observatory in Copenhagen...
- 1963 H. H. Plaskett
- 1964 Martin Ryle
Sir Martin Ryle was an English radio astronomer who developed revolutionary radio telescope systems and used them for accurate location and imaging of weak radio sources...
, Maurice EwingWilliam Maurice "Doc" Ewing was an American geophysicist and oceanographer.Ewing has been described as a pioneering geophysicist who worked on the research of seismic reflection and refraction in ocean basins, ocean bottom photography, submarine sound transmission , deep sea coring of the ocean...
- 1965 Edward Bullard
Sir Edward "Teddy" Crisp Bullard was a geophysicist born into a wealthy brewing family in Norwich, England. He studied Natural Sciences at Clare College, Cambridge...
, Gerald Maurice ClemenceGerald Maurice Clemence was an American astronomer. Inspired by the life and work of Simon Newcomb, his career paralleled the huge advances in astronomy brought about by the advent of the electronic computer. Clemence did much to revive the prestige of the U.S...
- 1966 Ira S. Bowen, Harold C. Urey
- 1967 Hannes Alfven
Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén was a Swedish plasma physicist and Nobel laureate for his work on the theory of magnetohydrodynamics. He was originally trained as an electrical power engineer and later moved to research and teaching in the fields of plasma physics...
, Allan SandageAllan Rex Sandage is an American astronomer.-Career:Allan R. Sandage is one of the most influential astronomers of the 20th century. Sandage graduated from the University of Illinois in 1948. By 1953 he earned his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology...
- 1968 Walter Munk
Walter Heinrich Munk is an American physical oceanographer.-Biography:Born in Vienna, Austria, Munk was sent to a preparatory school in New York State in 1932. The family selected New York because they envisioned a career in finance for Munk in a New York bank with connections to the family...
, Fred HoyleSir Fred Hoyle FRS was an English astronomer noted primarily for his contribution to the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and his often controversial stance on other cosmological and scientific matters—in particular his rejection of the "Big Bang" theory, a term originally coined by him as a...
- 1969 A. T. Price, Martin Schwarzschild
Martin Schwarzschild was a German American astronomer. He was the son of famed astrophysicist Karl Schwarzschild and the nephew of the Swiss astrophysicist Robert Emden....
- 1970 Horace W. Babcock
Horace Welcome Babcock was an American astronomer. He was the son of Harold D. Babcock.He invented and built a number of astronomical instruments, and in 1953 was the first to propose the idea of adaptive optics. He specialized in spectroscopy and the study of magnetic fields of stars...
- 1971 Frank Press
Frank Press is an American geophysicist.Born in Brooklyn, New York, Press is the recipient of 30 honorary degrees. He graduated with his B.S. degree from the City College of New York . Went on to complete his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University.-Notable accomplishments:*President of...
, Richard van der Riet WoolleyRichard van der Riet Woolley was an English astronomer who became Astronomer Royal. His mother's maiden name was Van der Riet....
- 1972 H. I. S. Thirlaway, Fritz Zwicky
Fritz Zwicky was born in Bulgaria, America-based Swiss astronomer. He was an original thinker, with many important contributions in theoretical and observational astronomy.-Biography:...
- 1973 Francis Birch
Albert Francis Birch was the Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology at Harvard University from 1949 to 1974. A geophysicist best known for his experimental work on the properties of Earth-forming minerals at high pressure and temperature, in 1952 he published a well-known paper in the Journal of...
, Edwin Salpeter
- 1974 Ludwig Biermann
Ludwig Franz Benedict Biermann was a German astronomer.He made important contributions to astrophysics and plasma physics...
, K. E. BullenKeith Edward Bullen was a New Zealand-born mathematician and geophysicist. He is noted for his seismological interpretation of the deep structure of the Earth's mantle and core. He was Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Sydney in Australia from 1945 until retirement in...
- 1975 Jesse Greenstein, Ernst Öpik
Ernst Julius Öpik was a notable Estonian astronomer and astrophysicist, who spent the last part of his career at the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland.-Education:...
- 1976 William H. McCrea, J. A. Ratcliffe
John Ashworth Ratcliffe, FRS , "JAR or Jack", was an influential British radio physicist....
- 1977 David R. Bates
Sir David Robert Bates, FRS was an Irish mathematician and physicist.Born in Omagh, County Tyrone, Ireland, he moved to Belfast with his family in 1925, attending the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. He enrolled with the Queen's University of Belfast in 1934...
, John G. Bolton
- 1978 Lyman Spitzer
Lyman Strong Spitzer, Jr. was an American theoretical physicist and astronomer best known for his research in star formation and for his promotions of telescopes in space and research into plasma physics.-Career:...
, James Van AllenJames Alfred Van Allen was an American space scientist at the University of Iowa. The Van Allen radiation belts were named after him, following the 1958 satellite missions in which Van Allen had argued that a Geiger counter should be used to detect charged particles.-Honors:* TIME magazine Man of...
- 1979 Leon Knopoff
Leon Knopoff is a geophysicist and musicologist. He received his education at Caltech, graduating in 1949 with a PhD in physics, and after holding several academic positions, moved to UCLA. He has done fundamental work in the field of theoretical seismology, for which he was honoured in 1979 by...
, C. G. Wynne
- 1980 C. L. Pekeris, Maarten Schmidt
Maarten Schmidt is a Dutch astronomer who measured the distances of astronomical objects called quasars.Born in Groningen, The Netherlands, Schmidt studied with Jan Hendrik Oort. He earned his Ph.D. from Leiden Observatory in 1956....
- 1981 J. F. Gilbert, Bernard Lovell
Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell, OBE, FRS is an English physicist and radio astronomer. He was the first Director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980.- Career :...
- 1982 Riccardo Giacconi
Riccardo Giacconi is an Italian/American Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist who laid the foundations of X-ray astronomy.- Biography :...
, Harrie MasseySir Harrie Stewart Wilson Massey was an influential Australian mathematical physicist. He worked primarily in the fields of atomic and atmospheric physics.- Life and career :...
- 1983 M. J. Seaton
Michael J. Seaton FRS was an influential British mathematician, atomic physicist and astronomer.He was born in Bristol, and educated at Wallington County Grammar School , a grammar school in Surrey, where he won prizes for his achievements in chemistry.From 1941 to 1946 he served in the wartime...
, Fred Whipple
- 1984 S. K. Runcorn, Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich
Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich was a prolific Soviet physicist. He played an important role in the development of Soviet nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, and made important contributions to the fields of adsorption and catalysis, shock waves, nuclear physics, particle physics, astrophysics,...
- 1985 Thomas Gold
Thomas Gold was an Austrian-born astrophysicist, a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society . Gold was one of three young Cambridge scientists who in the 1950s proposed the now mostly abandoned 'steady...
, Stephen HawkingStephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is a British theoretical physicist. He is known for his contributions to the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, especially in the context of black holes...
- 1986 G. E. Backus, Alexander Dalgarno
Alexander Dalgarno is a British physicist who is Phillips Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University. He was educated in mathematics and atomic physics at University College, London. He was an academic at the Queen's University of Belfast and moved to Harvard in 1967...
- 1987 Takesi Nagata, Martin Rees
- 1988 Don L. Anderson
Don L. Anderson is a US geophysicist who has made important contributions to the determination of the large-scale structure of the Earth's interior, especially using seismological methods. He is Eleanor and John R...
, C. de Jager
- 1989 R. Hide, Ken Pounds
Kenneth Alwyne Pounds, CBE, FRS is Emeritus Professor of physics at the University of Leicester.He was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, then attended University College London where he gained his BSc and PhD. He then moved to Leicester as Assistant Lecturer in 1960...
- 1990 J. W. Dungey, B. E. J. Pagel
- 1991 Vitaly Ginzburg
Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg is a Russian theoretical physicist, astrophysicist and Nobel laureate and a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences...
, G. J. Wasserburg
- 1992 Dan P. McKenzie, Eugene N. Parker
- 1993 Peter Goldreich
Peter Goldreich is an American astrophysicist whose research focuses on planetary rings, helioseismology and neutron stars. He is currently the Lee DuBridge Professor of Astrophysics and Planetary Physics at California Institute of Technology...
, Donald Lynden-BellDonald Lynden-Bell CBE FRS is an English astrophysicist, best known for his theories that galaxies contain massive black holes at their centre, and that such black holes are the principal source of energy in quasars. He was a co-recipient, with Maarten Schmidt, of the inaugural Kavli Prize for...
- 1994 James E. Gunn
James Edward Gunn is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy at Princeton University. He received the 2009 National Medal of Science....
, T. R. Kaiser
- 1995 John T. Houghton
Sir John Theodore Houghton FRS CBE is a Welsh scientist who was the co-chair of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's scientific assessment working group. He was the lead editor of first three IPCC reports...
, Rashid SunyaevRashid Alievich Sunyaev was born in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, on March 1, 1943 to a Tatar family, and educated at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and Moscow State University . He became a professor at MIPT in 1974...
- 1996 K. Creer, Vera Rubin
Vera Rubin is an American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates. Her opus magnum was the uncovering of the discrepancy between the predicted angular motion of galaxies and the observed motion, by studying galactic rotation curves...
- 1997 D. Farley, Donald Osterbrock
- 1998 R. L. Parker, James Peebles
- 1999 K. Budden, Bohdan Paczynski
Bohdan Paczyński or Bohdan Paczynski was a Polish astronomer, a leading scientist in theory of the evolution of stars, accretion discs and gamma ray bursts....
- 2000 L. Lucy, R. Hutchinson
- 2001 Hermann Bondi
Sir Hermann Bondi, KCB, FRS was an Anglo-Austrian mathematician and cosmologist. He is best known for developing the steady-state theory of the universe with Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold as an alternative to the Big Bang theory, but his most lasting legacy will probably be his important...
, H. Rishbeth
- 2002 Leon Mestel
Leon Mestel is a British astronomer who has won both the Eddington Medal and Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society ....
, J. A. Jacobs
- 2003 John Bahcall, D. Gubbins
- 2004 Jeremiah P. Ostriker
Jeremiah Paul Ostriker is an astrophysicist at Princeton University. He received his B.A. from Harvard, his Ph.D at the University of Chicago, and then carried out post-doctoral work at Cambridge. From 1971 to 1995, Ostriker was a professor at Princeton, and served as Provost there from 1995 to...
, Grenville TurnerGrenville Turner is a research professor at the University of Manchester. He is one of the pioneers of cosmochemistry.- Education :* Todmorden Grammar School* St...
- 2005 Margaret Burbidge
Eleanor Margaret Burbidge, née Peachey, FRS is an English astrophysicist, noted for original research and holding many administrative posts, including director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory....
, Geoffrey BurbidgeGeoffrey Ronald Burbidge is a English physics professor in the University of California, San Diego. He is married to Margaret Burbidge...
, Carole JordanProfessor Dame Carole Jordan, DBE, FRS, FInstP, was the first ever female president of the Royal Astronomical Society. She was also only the third female recipient of its Gold Medal .-Education:Carole Jordan was educated at Harrow County Grammar School for Girls and at University College London...
- 2006 Simon White
Simon White is a British astrophysicist. He is one of four directors at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics.- Life :...
, S. W. H. Cowley
- 2007 J. L. Culhane, Nigel O. Weiss
- 2008 Joseph Silk, B. Kennett
- 2009 David A. Williams, Eric Priest
Eric Priest, FRSE, FRS, holds the Gregory Chair of Mathematics and is a Bishop Wardlaw Professor at St Andrews University....
Silver medal
On two occasions, silver medals were also awarded, but this was soon discontinued.
- 1824 Charles Rümker, Jean-Louis Pons
Jean-Louis Pons was a French astronomer.Despite humble beginnings and being self-taught, he went on to become the greatest visual comet discoverer of all time: between 1801 and 1827 Pons discovered thirty-seven comets, more than any other person in history.- Early life :Pons was born at Peyre,...
- 1827 William Samuel Stratford
William Samuel Stratford was an English astronomer born in Eltham, Surrey.He joined the Royal Navy in 1806 under the command of Sir Sydney Smith...
, Mark BeaufoyColonel Mark Beaufoy FRS was an English mountaineer, explorer and British Army officer. His father, Mark Beaufoy , who was originally from Evesham, established a vinegar factory in Lambeth, London....
Testimonial medal of 1848
- George Biddell Airy
Sir George Biddell Airy FRS was an English mathematician and astronomer, Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881. His many achievements include work on planetary orbits, measuring the mean density of the Earth, a method of solution of two-dimensional problems in solid mechanics and, in his role as...
- John Couch Adams
John Couch Adams was a British mathematician and astronomer. Adams was born in Laneast, near Launceston, Cornwall and died in Cambridge. The Cornish name Couch is pronounced "cooch"....
- Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander
Friedrich Wilhelm August Argelander was a German astronomer. He is known for his determinations of stellar brightnesses, positions, and distances.- Life and work :...
- George Bishop
George Arthur Bishop was a Welsh association football player. He played professionally for Gillingham and Merthyr Town between 1926 and 1932....
- George Everest
Colonel Sir George Everest was a Welsh surveyor, geographer and Surveyor-General of India from 1830 to 1843....
- John Herschel
Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet KH, FRS was an English mathematician, astronomer, chemist, and experimental photographer/inventor, who in some years also did valuable botanical work. He was the son of astronomer Sir William Herschel and the father of 12 children.Herschel originated...
- Peter Andreas Hansen
Peter Andreas Hansen was a Danish astronomer, was born at Tønder, Schleswig.The son of a goldsmith, he learned the trade of a watchmaker at Flensburg, and exercised it at Berlin and Tønder, 1818–1820...
- Karl Ludwig Hencke
Karl Ludwig Hencke was a German amateur astronomer. He is sometimes confused with Johann Franz Encke, another German astronomer....
- John Russell Hind
John Russell Hind FRS was an English astronomer. Some sources give his name as John Russel Hind with only one "L". However, 19th century British astronomical magazines consistently spell his name with two "L"s....
- Urbain Le Verrier
Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier was a French mathematician who specialized in celestial mechanics and is best known for his part in the discovery of Neptune.- Early life and career :...
- John William Lubbock
- Maxmilian Weisse
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