Fellowship

Professor Catherine Heymans is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland. She is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the German Centre for Cosmological Lensing at the Ruhr Universitat Bochum, Germany. She specialises in observing the dark side of our Universe and co-leads the European Southern Observatory Kilo-Degree Survey, using deep sky observations to test whether we need to go beyond Einstein with our current theory of gravity. Catherine has co-authored over 200 articles in scientific journals and written the popular science book The Dark Universe. She promotes the public’s understanding of her research online, through the AstroTech MOOC, and in person, through a wide range of events, including art and science festivals. In recognition of her work she was awarded the 2017 Darwin Lectureship from the Royal Astronomical Society and the 2018 Max-Planck Humboldt Research Award.