Astronomer Royal: 30th July 2025
The King has approved the nomination of Professor Michele Dougherty, CBE, FRS, FRAS, to be the next Astronomer Royal.
The King has approved the nomination of Professor Michele Dougherty, CBE, FRS, FRAS, Executive Chair of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, President-elect of the Institute of Physics and a Professor of Space Physics at Imperial College London, in succession to The Lord Rees of Ludlow, OM, following his retirement.
Professor Dougherty was educated at the University of Natal where she was awarded a PhD in 1988 for research on wave-particle interactions in dispersive and anisotropic media.
She was Principal Investigator for the magnetometer instrument onboard the CASSINI-HUYGENS mission to Saturn and its moons and is the Principal Investigator of the magnetometer instrument for the European Space Agency mission, the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE), which is enroute to Jupiter and its moons.