Thursday, August 31, 2006
Fred Watson wins a Eureka Prize
Last year I read an absouletly enchanting book ... about the history of telescopes. You might think that this would be dry-as-dust boring, but Stargazer, the life and times of the telescope, was a riveting, and in many places rollicking, read. Fred Watson, the author of this book, is an outstanding Australian astronomer, he is the Astronomer-in-Charge of the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) at Coonabarabran, and also runs a program to to map the orbits of a million Southern Hemisphere stars. All this, and he can write crakerjack books as well. So I was greatly (if belatedly) chuffed to learn he has won a Eureka prize. Fred's prize was for science communication. As well as being a very active astronomer, he alos tirelessly talks about astronomy to all and sundry through radio shows and talks to the community. The ABC sicence show reported on the Eurekka prizes last weekend, with Fred Watson as one of the guests. You can listen to the show or read the transcript here.
# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 8:24 pm 
Click to read about or order
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