The Changing Scene in Astronomy

https://www.youtube.com/live/Y6whqEiLLFE

Since the first use of the telescope in 1609 astronomers have made amazing discoveries about the Universe in which we live. Technological improvements have meant bigger and better telescopes and novel instruments spanning the entire electromagnetic spectrum and beyond. This talk gives an illustrated overview of this development and the discoveries that have led to our current knowledge of the Universe and concludes with the onset of ‘Big Data’ in modern astronomy and the changing scene facing astronomers today.

Professor Robson has been Head of Dept of Physics and Astronomy at UCLAN; Director of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii; Director of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh and Director of the Science and Technology Facility Council’s Technology Department. He has undertaken extensive research in the fields of Active Galaxies and submillimetre astronomy, publishing over 200 papers, and has written an undergraduate textbook on Active Galactic Nuclei. Professor Robson is very active in outreach and was the first President of the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Commission for Communicating Astronomy with the Public. He led the UK programme for the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. He was the International Astronomical Union Assistant General Secretary for 2018–19 and has been President of the Society for Popular Astronomy and the Royal Scottish Society for the Arts. He was Vice President of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2021-23 and received the prestigious Service Award in 2024.

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