The space scientist Michele Dougherty from Imperial College London has been appointed the next Astronomer Royal – the first woman to hold the position. She will succeed the University of Cambridge cosmologist Martin Rees, who has held the role for the past three decades.
The title of Astronomer Royal dates back to the creation of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in 1675, when it mostly involved advising Charles II on using the stars to improve navigation at sea. John Flamsteed from Derby was the first Astronomer Royal and since then 15 people have held the role.
Dougherty will now act as the official adviser to King Charles III on astronomical matters. She will hold the role alongside her Imperial job as well as being executive chair of the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the next president of the Institute of Physics (IOP), a two-year position she will take up in October.
After gaining a PhD in 1988 from the University of Natal in South Africa, Dougherty moved to Imperial in 1991, where she was head of physics from 2018 until 2024. She has been principal investigator of the magnetometer on the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its moons and also for the magnetometer for the JUICE craft, which is currently travelling to Jupiter to study its three icy moons.
She was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2018 New Year Honours for “services to UK Physical Science Research”. Dougherty is also a fellow of the Royal Society, who won its Hughes medal in 2008 for studying Saturn’s moons and had a Royal Society Research Professorship from 2014 to 2019.
“I am absolutely delighted to be taking on the important role of Astronomer Royal,” says Dougherty. “As a young child I never thought I’d end up working on planetary spacecraft missions and science, so I can’t quite believe I’m actually taking on this position. I look forward to engaging the general public in how exciting astronomy is, and how important it and its outcomes are to our everyday life.”
Tom Grinyer, IOP group chief executive officer, offered his “warmest congratulations” to Dougherty. “As incoming president of the IOP and the first woman to hold this historic role [of Astronomer Royal], Dougherty is an inspirational ambassador for science and a role model for every young person who has gazed up at the stars and imagined a future in physics or astronomy.”
