The 2014 European Astronomy Journalism Prize has been announced. Now in its third year, the prize looks to reward excellence displayed in the field by professional journalists as well as students of both astronomy and journalism. It is awarded by Science & Technology Facilities Council and ESO, in association with the Royal Astronomical Society and the Association of British Science Writers.
The honor this year goes to Physics World
features editor Dr. Louise Mayor for the article “Hunting Gravitational Waves Using Pulsars” in Physics World. The winning article explores the quest to directly detect gravitational waves using a technique involving studying pulsars with radio telescopes. Her prize consists of a trip to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in northern Chile.
“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 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,” Mayor said upon hearing the news.
The panel of judges consisted of representatives of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the European Southern Observatory, the Royal Astronomical Society and the Association of British Science Writers.
