The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP), one of the oldest and most respected science education organizations in the U.S., announced Dr. Douglas N.C. LIN, Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC), has been honored with the 2015 Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal, the highest award bestowed by the ASP.

Founded in 1898, the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal is presented for lifetime achievements in outstanding research in astronomy, and has gone to some of the greatest and most distinguished astronomers, such as Edwin P. Hubble and Martin Schwarzschild, just to name a few, whose pioneering researches have yielded profound and fundamental insights into our universe. Several Nobel Laureates, including Hans Bethe, Martin Ryle, Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, William A. Fowler, and Riccardo Giacconi, have also been recipients of the Bruce Gold Medal.

Each year the directors of six observatories are invited to nominate candidates drawn from the best of the international astronomical community. National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC, CAS) was selected as one of the three non-U.S. nominating institutions, and has recommended Professor Douglas N. C. Lin as candidate for the Bruce Gold Medal. As an internationally well-recognized theoretical astrophysicist, Professor Lin has achieved exceptional accomplishments in a broad spectrum of fields including, but not limited to, planetary physics (both solar and extrasolar), star formation and ISM dynamics, accretion disk models and its application in celestial objects on different scales, from cataclysmic variables to AGNs, structure, dynamics, and evolution of stellar clusters and galaxies. We are especially grateful for Professor Lin’s dedication and devotion to the development of Chinese scientific research and education in astronomy, in particular his tireless effort to establish and serve as the founding director of the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University (KIAA-PKU). His experience as a world-leading expert has also served as an otherwise unavailable asset to the Chinese astronomical community to raise the profile and boost the visibility of astronomy in the country.

Professor Lin has been appointed as an Overseas Expert by the Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2014.

News Release from ASP can be found online at:

https://www.astrosociety.org/society-news/the-astronomical-society-of-the-pacific-honors-dr-douglas-n-c-lin-with-its-prestigious-catherine-wolfe-bruce-gold-medal/

The list of past recipients of the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal can be found online at:

http://www.astrosociety.org/about-us/past-recipients-of-the-catherine-wolfe-bruce-gold-medal-2/