A Cardiff University physicist has been awarded the 2024 Institute of Physics (IOP) James Joule Medal and Prize.

Professor Carole Tucker from the School of Physics and Astronomy was recognised for her outstanding work on the development and provision to the worldwide scientific community of optical components for astronomical instruments and other applications.

Professor Tucker, a member of the Astronomy Instrumentation Group at the Cardiff Hub for Astrophysics Research and Technology, has made key contributions to many front-rank far infrared and submillimetre instruments, including:

• ESA’s Herschel and Planck space missions
• NASA’s Mars and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiters
• ground-based observatories such as the SCUBA-2 instrument on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), and the South Pole Telescope (SPT)
• balloon-borne experiments such as BLAST and PIPER

These instruments and facilities have revolutionised our understanding of the Big Bang and the composition and structure of the Universe through observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, and the processes of galaxy, star and planetary system formation.

World-leaders

The team is currently participating in the development of new ground-based facilities including the Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope and the Simons Observatory, and future space missions such as the Japanese-led LiteBIRD satellite and the NASA Far Infrared Probe concept mission, PRIMA.

She added: “The award comes after 25 years at Cardiff University of research activity that has enabled far infrared astronomy. My team’s contribution is to design and build the filters that are needed to let through and control the signal wavelengths that the telescope needs to see and at the same time block out all the unwanted wavelengths of light. With pride I can state that we are the world-leaders in providing this technology.”

As well as astronomical applications, the technology developed by Professor Tucker’s team is also being applied in Earth observation and broader THz science and industry via international and industrial collaborations. This increased commercial activity has led to a Cardiff University spinout company, Celtic Terahertz Technology Ltd.

She said: “When scientists develop state-of-the-art technology for fundamental studies, those outcomes often find application closer to home. It’s a particular pleasure for me to see our products contributing to progress in fields beyond astronomy – for example in security screening, in fusion plasma diagnostics and in the next generation of meteorological satellites.”

Watch a video interview with Professor Carole Tucker on YouTube

The IOP is the professional body and learned society for physics, and the leading body for practising physicists, in the UK and Ireland.

Its annual awards proudly reflect the wide variety of people, places, organisations and achievements that make physics such an exciting discipline.

The IOP awards celebrate physicists at every stage of their career from those just starting out through to physicists at the peak of their careers, and those with a distinguished career behind them.

They also recognise and celebrate companies which are successful in the application of physics and innovation, as well as employers who demonstrate their commitment and contribution to scientific and engineering apprenticeship schemes.

Professor Sir Keith Burnett, Institute of Physics President, said: “On behalf of the Institute of Physics, I want to congratulate all of this year’s award winners.”

“There is so much focus today on the opportunities generated by a career in physics and the potential our science has to transform our society and economy and I hope the stories of our winners will help to inspire future generations of scientists.”