Highest honour for Scots astronomer who helped us see how stars form

Professor Gillian Wright, former Director of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, has been awarded the 2026 Tycho Brahe Medal by the The European Astronomical Society.

The medal, one of the highest honours in the field, recognises her leadership in developing one of the most powerful scientific instruments within the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Prof Wright led the project to design the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRA) of the JWST, the most powerful telescope ever to be launched into space.

Her design helped to deliver a series of stunning images for NASA, with the instrument allowing the telescope to view deep into the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum, where wavelengths are longer than our eyes can detect.

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Prof Wright said: “It is a tremendous honour to have my contributions recognised by the award of the Tycho Brahe Medal.

“In my career I have benefitted enormously from working internationally with fantastic collaborators in the MIRI team, as well as locally with the excellent staff at the UK ATC. I’m thrilled with the scientific success of JWST and that together we are advancing our understanding of the Universe through innovative instrumentation.”

Crucially, the telescope’s extreme sensitivity and capabilities to peer through cosmic dust shed new light on how stars form after a landscape of glittering “mountains and valley” on the edge of the Carina Nebula – known as the NGC 3324 - was detected.

Previously, these areas of star birth were wholly invisible.

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The medal awarded to Prof Wright is named after the 16th‑century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, a pioneer of precision astronomical measurements, the medal is one of Europe’s highest honours in observational astrophysics.

It is awarded annually to individuals who have made exceptional and internationally recognised contributions to the development of astronomical instrumentation or observational techniques.

Recipients are selected by an international panel of leading scientists, making the medal a significant marker of global impact in the field.

A graduate of the University of Glasgow, Professor Wright went on to complete her PhD at Imperial College London, specialising in infrared studies of interacting galaxies.

She later served as staff scientist and then Head of Instrumentation at the United Kingdom InfraRed Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii before returning to the UK in 1997 to join the newly founded UK ATC.

In her role as Director, from 2012 to 2024, she helped position UK ATC as a global leader in astronomical instrumentation.

Alongside her leadership on MIRI, Professor Wright contributed to the European Space Agency’s Herschel SPIRE instrument, served on the JWST Science Working Group and has been a prominent voice in public engagement around the mission’s discoveries.

Her achievements have previously been recognised with a CBE, election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and as the first UK recipient of the Royal Astronomical Society’s Caroline Herschel Medal.