A globally recognized leader in astronomy at West Virginia University has been elected to one of the top scientific academies in the world.
Duncan Lorimer, professor of physics and astronomy in the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, has been selected as a 2024 Fellow of the Royal Society of London for his contributions to pulsar astrophysics and his role in the discovery of fast radio bursts.
Founded in 1660, and now the oldest continuously running organization of its kind, the Royal Society is an independent scientific academy devoted to advancing science for the betterment of humanity.
Annually, the Royal Society’s Fellowship elects new fellows and foreign members from a variety of disciplines in the scientific community who have demonstrated excellence in furthering understanding of fields including the physical sciences, mathematics, medicine and engineering. This honor has been described as “the scientific equivalent of a lifetime achievement Oscar.”
Lorimer, who also serves as associate dean for research in the Eberly College, first received the news in March.
“I got the news after coming out of class,” he said. “Interestingly, we’d been studying Hawking radiation from black hole explosions in class that day, which was one of the landmark achievements of Stephen Hawking (who was elected to the Royal Society in 1974) and something that has been hypothesized as a source of fast radio bursts. My immediate reaction when I started looking at past and present fellows was, ‘Wow!’ Being connected to this legacy was quite awe-inspiring and emotional for me.”
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