Alumnus receives Royal Astronomical Society’s highest award

Published on
Wednesday 18 January 2023
Category
Alumni

Professor Timothy Palmer from Oxford University's Department of Physics, has been awarded a Gold Medal for his outstanding contributions to the field of climate and weather prediction. 

Alumnus Professor Timothy Palmer, who completed his Oxford DPhil on General Relativity from Wolfson in 1974, is delighted to have received the highest accolade from the Royal Astronomical Society – a Gold Medal. 

Professor Palmer said, “Throughout my career, I have always been very motivated to do something of practical importance for society, but in a way that used the sophisticated theoretical and mathematical techniques I had been trained in. It is wonderful to have this formally acknowledged.” 

Throughout his career, Professor Palmer has published over 260 research papers in international peer-reviewed journals (including 13 articles in Nature), which have attracted over 25,000 citations. He was also President of the Royal Meteorological Society between 2011-2012.  

The Gold Medal is the Royal Astronomical Society’s highest honour and can be awarded for any reason, but usually recognises outstanding lifetime achievement. It was first awarded in 1824 to Charles Babbage, with previous winners including Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble, Arthur Eddington, and Stephen Hawking. Since 1964, two Gold Medals have been awarded each year: one for astronomy, and one for geophysics.