Michel Doherty, professor of space physics at Imperial College London, has been appointed to the Royal Astronomical Observatory, which is recognized as the most prestigious in astronomy in Britain. Yonhap News reported on the 31st that the British Cabinet Office has appointed Doherty as the 16th Royal Astronomical Observatory for the first time as a woman. The Royal Astronomical Observatory is a position newly established by King Charles II in 1675 when he established the Royal Observatory of Greenwich for the development of navigation technology, and is a position to lead the observatory and report astronomical-related issues to the king. Although it is an honorary position with a tradition of 350 years, it is known as a meaningful position for a scholar as it means that he was recognized as an authority in the field of astronomy at the time.
According to Yonhap News, Professor Doherty focused on the magnetic field action of the planet and found that water and hydrocarbons were contained in the atmosphere surrounding Saturn’s moon, Enceladus. She was in charge of analyzing Saturn’s magnetic field data at the Cassini and Huygens, a joint Saturn exploration project between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), and also served as a senior researcher for the European Space Agency’s Jupiter satellite probe Juice. Back in 2008, the Royal Society of England received the Hughes Medal, which is given to scholars who have made original discoveries in electricity, magnetism and applications.
She was born in South Africa in 1962, and made his first Jupiter observation at the age of 10 with a telescope made by his father. According to the Guardian, a British media outlet, Professor Doherty was unable to study science at all because no science subjects were offered during his middle and high school years. Because she was good at math, she was able to take science lectures at university, and quickly demonstrated his talent to become a prominent scientist.
Professor Doherty said in a government statement, “I can’t believe I took the position of a royal astronomer because I had no idea I would do science as well as planetary probe missions when I was a child. I want to share this role with the public and let them know how interesting astronomy is and how important it is to our daily lives.”
There were a total of 15 scholars who served as royal astronomers in the 350-year history of history, all of them male. The first astronomical observatory John Flamstead recorded the observation of Uranus for the first time in 1690, and the second astronomical observatory was Edmund Halley, who was famous for calculating the cycle of Halley’s Comet. Seven generations, George Videl Airy, reorganized Greenwich’s meridian measurement system to lead the adoption of the primary meridian in the next generation.
“I’ve always wanted to make sure that if I’m chosen for a role, it’s because of what I’ve accomplished, not because I’m a woman,” Professor Doherty said in a BBC radio interview. “If young girls see someone like me and dream that they don’t know if they can do this in the future, they’ve accomplished one of the things I wanted to achieve.”
JENNIFE KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
