UCL astrophysicist honoured for Uranus and Jupiter discoveries

Dr William Dunn - Dr William Dunn - Dr William Dunn (UCL Physics and Astronomy) has been honoured by the Institute of Physics for his "paradigm-shifting" research on outer planets of the solar system, and for his leadership of a national school science programme. Dr Dunn was awarded the 2022 Henry Moseley Medal and Prize, which recognises "exceptional early-career contributions to experimental physics". The award citation noted his discovery of X-rays coming from Uranus - the first time such an emission has been detected - as well as his work identifying the fundamental processes that cause Jupiter to produce X-ray aurorae (aurorae are emissions of light from a planet's polar regions and on Earth they are known as the northern lights). The citation said the findings were "extremely novel and provide a paradigm-shifting body of work, exceptional for [Dr Dunn's] early career stage". It also noted Dr Dunn's management of the ORBYTS programme, which creates long-term partnerships between scientists and schools, providing school students with relatable science role models and empowering them to conduct their own original space research projects. During his time leading the programme, it has grown from two to 35 scientist-school partnerships across multiple universities and regions, and has had a dramatic impact in increasing uptake of physics by students from historically excluded groups. (For instance, at one school it helped to double the number of girls studying physics A- and AS-levels.