{"id":19343,"date":"2021-06-24T09:59:47","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T09:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=93749"},"modified":"2021-06-24T09:59:47","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T09:59:47","slug":"interview-with-catherine-heymans-scotlands-new-astronomer-royal","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/interview-with-catherine-heymans-scotlands-new-astronomer-royal\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Catherine Heymans, Scotland\u2019s new Astronomer Royal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Professor <\/p>\n

Prof Catherine Heymans is the new Astronomer Royal for Scotland and an expert on dark energy<\/a> and dark matter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh, Heymans\u2019 astronomical interest lies in finding clues that might reveal the truth behind the elusive \u2018dark Universe\u2019, which makes up 95% of all matter.<\/p>\n

The Astronomer Royal for Scotland role goes all the way back to 1834, and Prof Heymans is the first woman to ever be appointed.<\/p>\n

So what does Scotland\u2019s Astronomer Royal do, and what is Catherine Heymans looking forward to most about taking up the historic role?<\/p>\n

We spoke to her to find out what lies ahead.<\/p>\n

\"Professor<\/div>\n
<\/i> Professor Catherine Heymans, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland. Credit: Maverick Photo Agency<\/span><\/figcaption><\/span><\/div>\n

How were you appointed Astronomer Royal for Scotland?<\/b><\/h1>\n

After [the previous holder] John Brown sadly passed away in 2019, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, a network of all the Physics Departments in Scotland, started talking about it.<\/p>\n

Then they involved the Royal Society of Edinburgh, who convened an international panel.<\/p>\n

They looked at all of the astronomers in Scotland, created a shortlist and contacted all of us to ask if this was something we would be interested in.<\/p>\n

I wrote back saying, \u201cOf course!\u201d And put together a \u2018vision document\u2019 of what I\u2019d like the role to be.<\/p>\n

I guess the panel liked my vision, because they asked if would I like to be recommended to The Queen? I said yes, and the Queen wrote back saying she <\/span>was happy with the recommendation, so there we go.<\/p>\n

How do you see your new role developing?<\/b><\/h1>\n

Well, the job description is blank. It\u2019s really exciting for me to be able to say what I think the job will be.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, I\u2019m reaching out to all of the amateur astronomers and professional astronomers in Scotland and across the UK to ask what they want the Astronomer Royal for Scotland to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are so many fantastic ideas out there, so many passionate people: our UK amateur astronomy societies<\/a> have grown in size immensely over lockdown.<\/span><\/p>\n

Because we couldn\u2019t explore geographically, people instead started looking up and out into the Universe \u2013 so, let\u2019s capitalise on that.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Royal<\/div>\n
<\/i> The Royal Observatory Edinburgh. Credit: ROE<\/span><\/figcaption><\/span><\/div>\n

How important is it to you being the first woman to take on the role?<\/b><\/h1>\n

I\u2019ve had so many lovely emails from people just saying how important it is to them to see this role \u2013 which has always been held by men \u2013 finally being held by a woman.<\/span><\/p>\n

It shows that female astronomers are out there. We exist!\u00a0<\/span>I\u2019m the 11th Astronomer Royal for Scotland; that\u2019s one out of 11.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you look at the percentage of female professors in physics, it\u2019s about that ratio as well. There\u2019s this cultural perception that physics is not for girls, and the more visible women we can have out there, the better.<\/span><\/p>\n

What attracted you to the \u2018dark universe\u2019?<\/b><\/h1>\n

During my undergraduate course in physics at the University of Edinburgh, we were getting a bit bogged down in it, and our lecturer said: \u201cLet\u2019s just take a break, because a really exciting scientific paper has come out today.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He took us through Adam Riess\u2019s first evidence that the expansion of the Universe is actually accelerating.<\/span><\/p>\n

We came out of that lecture absolutely buzzing. I just thought: Yeah, I want to do a PhD to solve what this dark energy is. Honestly, how naive!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/div>\n
<\/i> A dark matter halo mapped in galaxy Abell 1689. Credit: NASA, ESA, E. Jullo (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), P. Natarajan (Yale University), and J.-P. Kneib (Laboratoire d\u2019Astrophysique de Marseille, CNRS, France); Acknowledgment: H. Ford and N. Benetiz (Johns Hopkins University), and T. Broadhurst (Tel Aviv University)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/span><\/div>\n

It didn\u2019t quite work out then\u2026<\/b><\/h1>\n

My PhD was on gravitational lensing<\/a>, which you can use to look at the gravitational effects of dark matter, how it\u2019s changing over time and how that tells you what the dark energy is doing.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t solve dark matter and dark energy, of course, but my PhD was setting the groundwork for how you actually make these measurements.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s really very meticulous work, because the distortions you\u2019re looking for in the data are at the level of about 1%.<\/p>\n

How will you balance your new responsibilities as Astronomer Royal for Scotland?<\/b><\/h1>\n

My research has been funded by taxpayers throughout my whole life, so I have always been a keen science communicator. I\u2019m not going to stop the day job with the research because I haven\u2019t solved it.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was clearly naive thinking that I would solve it during my PhD, but I\u2019m hopeful that, by the time I retire, we\u2019ll have worked this one out.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m very lucky that the University of Edinburgh really wants to see me doing something with this role as well, so they are giving me a bit of time to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keep up to date with Prof Catherine Heymans\u2019 work by following the Astronomer Royal for Scotland Twitter account<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Paul Cockburn is a science and astronomy writer. This interview first appeared in the July 2021 issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prof Catherine Heymans is the new Astronomer Royal for Scotland and an expert on dark energy and dark matter. As Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh, Heymans\u2019 astronomical interest lies in finding clues that might reveal the truth behind the elusive \u2018dark Universe\u2019, which makes up 95% of all matter. The Astronomer Royal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"5"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Prof Catherine Heymans is the new Astronomer Royal for Scotland and an expert on dark energy and dark matter. As Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh, Heymans\u2019 astronomical interest lies in finding clues that might reveal the truth behind the elusive \u2018dark Universe\u2019, which makes up 95% of all matter. The Astronomer Royal…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/19343"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}