Skip to main content

Your web browser is out of date. Please update it for greater security, speed and the best experience on this site.

Choose a different browser

Features editor of Physics World awarded European Astronomy Journalism Prize

03 Feb 2015 by iopp

Dr Louise Mayor, features editor of Physics World, is off to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, after winning the European Astronomy Journalism Prize 2014.

Louise’s winning article, “Hunting gravitational waves using pulsars”, was published in the October 2014 issue of Physics World and was also promoted via a video on physicsworld.com.

Louise said: "I am absolutely delighted to win the prize. My article was about the effort to detect gravitational waves by using radio telescopes to observe distant pulsars. I first heard about this method last year and was so curious that I felt compelled to find out more by visiting the Jodrell Bank Observatory and then to share the story with others."

"I can't wait to visit ALMA and gaze up at a night sky full of more stars than I've ever seen before, experience the weird effects of high altitude and find out what cosmic questions the scientists there are trying to answer."

ALMA, a state-of-the-art telescope, is located 5000 metres above sea level in the Atacama Desert, on the high-altitude Chajnantor Plain. Comprising 50 12-metre antennae plus a compact array of 16 antennae, it allows astronomers to study light from some of the coldest objects in the universe.

The European Astronomy Journalism Prize celebrates the outstanding coverage of astronomy, and in particular work that enthuses the audience with the importance of astronomy. It is run by the Science and Technology Facilities Council and the European Southern Observatory, in conjunction with the Association of British Science Writers and the Royal Astronomical Society.

Share this