Tycho Brahe Medal
The 2020 Tycho Brahe Medal is awarded to Prof. Stefano Vitale (University of Trento, Italy) for leading the LISA Pathfinder mission which has demonstrated with extraordinary precision the technology required for the future Laser Interferometer Space Antenna whose fundamental aim is to observe low frequency gravitational waves from space.
Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture
The 2020 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is awarded to Prof. Alvio Renzini (National Institute of Astrophysics, at the Astronomical Observatory of Padova, Italy) for his key contributions to the understanding of stars, stellar populations and the evolution of galaxies and his essential contributions to the success of ESO in his role as VLT Programme Scientist.
Fritz Zwicky Prize for Astrophysics & Cosmology
The Inaugural Fritz Zwicky Prize for Astrophysics & Cosmology is awarded to Prof. Martin J. Rees (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom) for outstanding contributions to astrophysics and cosmology including seminal papers on active galaxies and black holes, the origin of gamma-ray bursts, the large-scale structure of the Universe, and the cosmic microwave background. This exceptionally broad oeuvre has been both prescient and enormously influential.
MERAC Prizes
The 2020 MERAC Prizes for the Best PhD Thesis are awarded in Theoretical Astrophysics to Dr Aris Tritsis (Australian National University, Australia) for fundamental contributions to the physics of the interstellar medium and the process of star formation.
Observational Astrophysics to Dr Jorryt Matthee (ETH Zürich, Switzerland) for spectacular results that have transformed the way we see and understand distant galaxies across time.
New Technologies (Instrumental) to Dr Concepción Cárdenas Vázquez (Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Germany) for her leadership and creative work in instrumentation, from the conceptual design and the feasibility study to the final integration and verification, both in the laboratory and at the telescope, related to the instrument PANIC.
All six awardees will give a plenary lecture at the European Astronomical Society Annual Meeting 2020 to be held in Leiden, the Netherlands, from 29 June to 3 July 2020.
The European Astronomical Society (EAS) promotes and advances astronomy in Europe. As an independent body, the EAS can act on matters that need to be handled at a European level on behalf of the European astronomical community.
The Tycho Brahe Medal is awarded in recognition of the development or exploitation of European instruments or major discoveries based largely on such instruments.
Tycho Brahe Medal
The 2020 Tycho Brahe Medal is awarded to Prof. Stefano Vitale (University of Trento, Italy) for leading the LISA Pathfinder mission which has demonstrated with extraordinary precision the technology required for the future Laser Interferometer Space Antenna whose fundamental aim is to observe low frequency gravitational waves from space.
Prof. Stefano Vitale studied physics at the University of Rome. He then occupied various positions at the University of Trento. In 1985, he was promoted to associate professor at the University of Trento and in 1994 to full professor at the same university. He was also visiting scholar at the University of California in Berkeley and at the University of Stanford.
He started working in condensed matter physics, but then turned to gravitational physics. Since 1995, Prof. Vitale has been involved in space activities devoted (i) to tests of General Relativity and (ii) to observe gravitational waves, the latter as a member of the ESA study team for LISA. Since 2003, Prof. Vitale is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the LISA Technology Package payload on board of the LISA Pathfinder mission of ESA. Since mid of 2017, he is chair of the Science Program Committee (SPC) committee of ESA. He served in numerous various committees and held also various university managements responsibilities.
Initially working in the field of condensed matter and biophysics, Prof. Stefano Vitale turned his attention to phenomena in superconductivity and around 1989 he started to work on the realization of a resonant-antenna observatory for gravitational-wave bursts. This activity, under the lead of Prof. Cerdonio, brought to the construction of the gravitational wave detector Auriga at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro nearby Padova, which took data from 1997 till about 2015.
Prof. Vitale turned his attention to the detection of gravitational waves in space and started to work on the technology of free fall in space. This lead then later to the design of the LISA
Pathfinder mission. The operation of LISA is based on laser ranging of test-masses under pure geodesic motion. Indeed, gravitational-wave detection relies on monitoring with high accuracy two freely falling bodies. This technology for space was not available at the level of precision needed for LISA and had thus to be designed and built ab initio increasing the precision by at least two orders of magnitude. Stefano Vitale played a crucial role in its conception and subsequent design, then in its realization and, as far as possible, in its verification on Earth before launch. The latter was done in his laboratory at the University of Trento by means of the so-called torsion pendulum. These measurements were crucial to systematically improve the drag-free technology and bring it to required level, as well as for the understanding of the residual forces acting on the test masses. Only with their precise knowledge it is possible to use this technology in LISA for measuring gravitational waves. Stefano Vitale gave important contributions in the subsequent analysis of the data coming from the LISA Pathfinder drag-free technology package. Thanks to which there is now a clear understanding of all non gravitational forces acting on the test-masses, which is a crucial step for being able to go forward with the LISA mission. The now established drag- free technology opens the door to other uses in the space science beyond the gravitational wave detection, as for instance it could be used for satellite missions aiming at testing more precisely the general relativity.
Since 2003, Prof. Vitale was the Principal Investigator (PI) of the LISA Technology Package payload on board of the LISA Pathfinder mission of ESA. Prof. Stefano Vitale played an eminent role in the very successful LISA Pathfinder mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). LISA Pathfinder was a very successful mission that was launched in December 2015 and took data till July 2017. ESA awarded in October 2017 the ESA Corporate Team Achievement Award 2016 to the LISA Pathfinder team. The LISA Pathfinder has proven that its residual noise was well below the requirements and already at the level of what is needed for building LISA. This excellent performance of LISA Pathfinder together with the ground- based discovery in 2016 and 2017 of gravitational waves by LIGO and VIRGO interferometers made a significant impact and helped the selection on 20 June 2017 of LISA by ESA as one of its large missions (L3): LISA is now in Phase A. In addition, after these historical success and discoveries, NASA is now back again as a partner in LISA.
The Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture honours astronomers of outstanding scientific distinction.
Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture
Prof. Alvio Renzini studied in Pisa, where he received a Physics Diploma from the University of Pisa and the Scuola Normale Superiore in 1963. After holding a fellowship at the Scuola Normale for three years he obtained an Astronomer position at the Astronomical Observatory of Bologna in 1967. In 1970, he was appointed a professor at the University of Bologna, a position he held until 1995 when he moved to ESO as VLT Program Scientist. Since his retirement from ESO in 2005, he is Associate Scientist of INAF at the Astronomical Observatory of Padova. He also was a visiting scientist/professor at numerous institutions around the world and received several awards and honorary appointments.
Prof. Alvio Renzini’s research and contributions to astronomy are characterised by unusual breadth and depth. During his early career, he wrote seminal papers on stars, in particular their advanced evolutionary stages and chemistry. Over time, his interests broadened and included the evolution of stellar populations and galaxies, nucleosynthesis, the intergalactic medium in galaxy clusters, and more. As a theoretician, he participated in several prominent galaxy surveys and provided inspiration and support for the interpretation of data. In doing so, he displayed an unwavering focus on the underlying physical processes in astrophysical phenomena which allowed him to cut through their complexity, resulting in arguments of beautiful clarity and deep insight.
Prof. Renzini has been much more than a brilliant scientist with wide-spread theoretical and observational experience. When he moved to ESO in 1995 and became VLT Program
The 2020 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is awarded to Prof. Alvio Renzini (National Institute of Astrophysics, at the Astronomical Observatory of Padova, Italy) for his key contributions to the understanding of stars, stellar populations and the evolution of galaxies and his essential contributions to the success of ESO in his role as VLT Programme Scientist.
Scientist, he took on a most important and influential role in shaping ESO’s Very Large Telescope Project. He provided guidance for the optimal use of the VLT and its future instrumentation and suggested crucial upgrades to existing instruments. He fostered survey work at ESO, also in combination with other facilities, like the Hubble Space Telescope. As VLT program scientist he contributed in a major way to the success of ESO and, in turn, the scientific excellence of European Astronomy over the last decades.
Prof. Renzini has been a mentor of many successful scientists who now hold prestigious positions around the world. He is a member of the ‘Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei’, Rome, the ‘Instituto Veneto di Science, Lettere e Arti’, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Picture credit: Dr Robert A.E. Fosbury