Bok Prize Explained

The Bok Prize is awarded annually by the Astronomical Society of Australia and the Australian Academy of Science to recognise outstanding research in astronomy by honoring a student at an Australian university. The prize consists of the Bok Medal together with an award of $1000 and ASA membership for the following year.[1]

History

The prize is named to commemorate the energetic work of Bart Bok in promoting the undergraduate and graduate study of astronomy in Australia, during his term (1957–1966) as Director of the Mount Stromlo Observatory.

Past winners

Source: Astronomical Society of Australia

Year Winner University Awarded for
2023 William McDonald The University of Western Australia Dissociation of Dark Matter and Gas in Cosmic Large-scale Structure
2022 Maria Djuric It looks like the Milky Way is a giant Swiss roll
2021 Madeleine McKenzie The University of Western Australia Simulating the Formation of Multiple Stellar Populations in Globular Clusters
2020 James Beattie Australian National University Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (RSAA) Supersonic Turbulent Molecular Clouds: Filaments and Anisotropies
2019 Sam Cree University of Queensland Can the fluctuations of the Quantum Vacuum Solve the Cosmological Constant Problem?
2018 Matthew Keen University of SydneyAsteroseismology of Subgiant Stars: A Study of Mixed-Mode Oscillations
2017 Madeline Marshall University of TasmaniaTriggering Active Galactic Nuclei in Galaxy Clusters
2016 Extraction of Cosmological Information from WiggleZ
2015 Waves in the sky: Probing the ionosphere with the Murchison Widefield Array
2014 Ross Turner Evolution of radio-loud Active Galactic Nuclei
2013 Ben Pope University of Sydney Dancing in the Dark: Kernel Phase Interferometry of Ultracool Dwarfs[2]
2012 Alison Hammond University of Sydney Cosmic Magnetism: Faraday Rotation as a Probe of Extragalactic Magnetic Fields
2011 Barnaby Norris University of Sydney A study of AGB circumstellar dust shells using optical polarimetric interferometry
2010 Madusha Gunawardhana Constraints on the Evolution of the Stellar Initial Mass Function
2009 Peter Jensen The Colours of Galaxies in Intermediate X-ray Luminosity Galaxy Clusters
2008 Christopher Hales University of Sydney Cosmic Forensics: A study of the Pulsar Wind Nebula G359.1-23, The Mouse
2007 Katie Dodds-Eden Australian National University Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (RSAA) TeVeS Theory and observational tests.
2006 Brent Miszalski Macquarie University Simulated Annealing and Optimisation of 2dF Fibre Configuration
2005 Patrick Scott Australian National University CO spectral line formation in the sun: convective simulation, line profiles and isotopic abundances
2004 Stanislav Shabala University of Tasmania On the Evolution of HII regions
2003 Darren Croton Australian National University Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (RSAA) Clustering and void statistics of the 2dF galaxy redshift survey
2002 not awarded
2001 Yeshe Fenner Australian National University Solving the Mystery of the Warm Ionised Medium
2000 Josephine Brown Australian National University A photometric morphological and environmental study of the COLA galaxy southern sample
1999 Michael Murphy Variability of the Fine Structure Constant
1998 Malcolm Kennett University of Sydney Neutrino Emission from a Magnetised Plasma
1997 Jean-Pierre Macquart University of Sydney Radio Propagation through Discrete Structures in the Interstellar Medium
1996 Astrophysical Angular Correlations
1995 Michael Brown A study of compound chondrule formation in meteorites
1994 Arthur Street University of Sydney Work on acceleration in type II solar radio bursts
1993 Sally Houghton University of New South Wales A study of methanol masers towards Sagittarius B2
1992 Kylie Waring Photometry of stellar variations
1991 Neal Turner University of Sydney Work on the atmospheres of cool dwarf stars
1990 Robert Reinfrank A CCD survey of bright southern galaxies
1989 Andrew Gray University of Sydney Solar observations using the Molonglo radio telescope

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The Bok Prize . 26 September 2020 . Astronomical Societyof Australia.
  2. Book: Dancing in the Dark: Kernel Phase Interferometry of Ultracool Dwarfs . Sydney Institute for Astronomy School of Physics University of Sydney . Pope, Benjamin . 2012 . 68 . 2016-06-11 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160322044350/http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~bjsp/thesis/thesis.pdf# . 2016-03-22 . dead .