The IAU PhD Prize recognises the outstanding scientific achievements of astronomy PhD students around the world. Each of the IAU’s nine divisions awards a prize to the candidate it feels has carried out the most remarkable work in the previous year, and the nine divisions together also agree on jointly awarding an extra prize, the PhD at-large Prize. This year the divisions have also awarded an Exceptional Inter-Division Prize, while no award has been given by Division C. This time 10 PhD theses, defended between 16 December 2021 and 15 December 2022, were submitted.

The IAU Executive Committee is pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 IAU PhD Prizes as follows:

• Division A Fundamental Astronomy: Irene de Blasi, Italy, “Dynamics and stability in Celestial Mechanics: from galactic billiards to Nekhoroshev estimates”
• Division B Facilities, Technologies and Data Science: Joachim Moeyens, USA, “The Characterization and Discovery of Solar System Small Bodies in Modern Astronomical Surveys”
• Division D High Energy Phenomena and Fundamental Physics: Andrew Mummery, UK, “Illuminating tidal disruption events with a time-dependent theory of relativistic accretion discs”
• Division E Sun and Heliosphere: Yajie Chen, China, Nanjing, “Forward Modeling of Solar Coronal Magnetic Field and Plasma Diagnostics”
• Division F Planetary Systems and Astrobiology: Malena Rice, USA, “A Dynamical Synthesis of Planetary Systems”
• Division G Stars and Stellar Physics: Antoine Bédard, Canada, “Characterization and modelling of the spectral evolution of hot white dwarf stars”
• Division H Interstellar Matter and Local Universe: Piyush Sharda, Netherlands, “The role of metals from molecular clouds to galactic discs”
• Division J Galaxies and Cosmology: Daniel Horta Darrington, USA, “Unveiling the mass assembly history of the Milky Way from its stellar halo”
• PhD at-large Prize: Naira Azatyan, Armenia, “Search and study of young infrared stellar clusters”
• Exceptional Inter-Division Prize: David Hosking, USA, “The decay of MHD turbulence and the primordial origin of magnetic fields in cosmic voids”

Each PhD prize winner will receive airfare, registration fee and accommodation to attend the IAU XXXII General Assembly, to be held in August next year in Cape Town, South Africa. Certificates will be awarded at Division Days, where at the discretion of the Division, there may be an opportunity to present their thesis work.

Several divisions also gave honourable mentions to the following candidates:

• Division A Fundamental Astronomy: Hao Ding, Australia, “Enhancing the use of Galactic neutron stars as physical laboratories with precise astrometry”
• Division B Facilities, Technologies and Data Science: Michael James Smith, UK, “Using Deep Learning to Explore Ultra-Large Scale Astronomical Data”
• Division D High Energy Phenomena and Fundamental Physics: Inés Pastor-Marazuela, Netherlands, “Exploring the link between Neutron Stars and Fast Radio Bursts”
• Division E Sun and Heliosphere: Prabir Kumar Mitra, India, “Investigations of Initiation and Evolution of Transient Phenomena in Solar Atmosphere”
• Division E Sun and Heliosphere: Yuto Bekki, Germany, “Theory of solar oscillations in the inertial frequency range”
• Division F Planetary Systems and Bioastronomy: Tyler Gardner, UK, “Probing Unique Regimes of Exoplanet Science with Long Baseline Interferometry”
• Division F Planetary Systems and Bioastronomy: Misako Tatsuuma, Japan, “Material Strength of Dust Aggregates in Planet Formation”
• Division J Galaxies and Cosmology: Kana Moriwaki, Japan, “Analysis of the Large-Scale Structure of the Universe Using Cosmological Simulations and Machine Learning”

Also this year Springer has offered to nominate all IAU PhD Prize Winners 2022 for a Springer Thesis Award. This opportunity is extended annually to a limited number of high-ranking university research departments and societies in the physical sciences and engineering. The award itself comprises a monetary prize of €500 and publication of the work in the collection of outstanding dissertations Springer Theses. Over the past 12 years, this program has helped to disseminate the PhD research of more than 1000 young scientists.

The IAU congratulates all prizewinners and recipients of honourable mentions, wishes them every success in their future careers, and looks forward to another set of high-quality applications for next year’s award.

The round of applications for the 2023 IAU PhD Prize is open for submissions until 15 December 2023; the next set of winners will be announced in June 2024. Candidates are required to submit, amongst other items, an abstract of their thesis that is suitable for public dissemination, a 1500-word thesis summary, three letters of recommendation (including one from the PhD advisor) and a CV. The winner of each Division will be decided by the Division’s own standards and methods and guided by the Division Steering Committee. Theses must have been both submitted and defended by the prize deadline in order to be considered.

More information

The IAU is the international astronomical organisation that brings together more than 12 000 active professional astronomers from more than 100 countries worldwide. Its mission is to promote and safeguard astronomy in all its aspects, including research, communication, education and development, through international cooperation. The IAU also serves as the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and the surface features on them. Founded in 1919, the IAU is the world's largest professional body for astronomers.

Contacts

Madeleine Smith-Spanier 
IAU Membership Coordinator & Database Manager
Email: smith@iap.fr

Lars Lindberg Christensen
IAU Director of Communications
Cell: +1 520 461 0433/+49 173 38 72 621
Email: lars.christensen@noirlab.edu