Professor Andrew Bunker has been awarded the Herschel Medal by the Royal Astronomical Society. The medal is awarded for investigations of outstanding merit in observational astrophysics.
Professor Bunker researches galaxy formation and evolution, and searches for the most distant galaxies yet known. These galaxies formed so long ago that the light we see from them has been travelling for most of the age of the universe (13.7 billion years) to reach us. By discovering galaxies formed when the Universe was very young and comparing them with more nearby galaxies formed when the Universe was older, we can study the formation and evolution of galaxies: an astronomical version of archaeology.
Over his career, Professor Bunker has used the Hubble Space Telescope and large ground-based telescopes to study these galaxies, and led the first scientific paper on the Hubble Ultra Deep Field – the most sensitive image of the cosmos ever taken. More recently, he has worked on the near-infrared spectrograph NIRSpec on the James Webb Space Telescope, an instrument which has been revolutionary in its sensitivity, enabling the discovery of some of the most distant galaxies yet, and new insight into the rate at which stars are born.
‘I am greatly honoured to receive the Herschel Medal,’ he comments. ‘It has been very exciting to work on incredible data from the James Webb Space Telescope and help discover some of the most distant galaxies yet. The sensitivity of the near-infrared spectrograph NIRSpec has been revolutionary, and I warmly acknowledge the contributions of my fellow members of the Instrument Science Team.’