Speaker profile
Prof. James Hough
Available for booking
Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England
50 miles travel distance
Research Astronomer
Summary
Professor Hough is an award-winning research astronomer.
Full biography
Professor James Hough led the astronomy research programme at the University of Hertfordshire for almost 40 years, retiring as Director of the Centre for Astrophysics in 2010.
The Centre has over 60 researchers and covers a wide range of astronomy from exoplanets to high-redshift galaxies.
He is also an extensively published astronomer with ~200 refereed papers, a majority of those based on polarimetric observations in the optical and near-infrared using instruments designed and built by himself and used at major observatories in Australia, Hawaii and the Canary Islands. Studies included active galaxes, star-forming regions, interstellar dust, and comets.
Professor Hough was awarded the Daiwa-Adrian prize for UK-Japan scientific collaborations in 1998, and the Royal Astronomical Society Herschel Medal in 2010.
Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council reports [1993-95], Hough I & Hough II, set out the future of UK Ground-Based Astronomy, and the case for a UK Astronomy Technology Centre [then established at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh].