2013 Reber Medal Awarded to Jim Moran

The 2013 Grote Reber Medal for significant and innovative contributions to radio astronomy was awarded to AAS member Jim Moran on 8 July at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science meeting in Turku, Finland.

Moran is the Donald H. Menzel Professor of Astrophysics at Harvard University and Senior Radio Astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. He was recognized for his ground-breaking work in the study of molecular masers as tracers of the structure and magnetic fields in the envelopes of late-type stars and massive protostars and for his pioneering development and application of spectroscopic very-long-baseline interferometry. Using the VLBI techniques that he developed, Moran led the group of scientists and students that provided the first definitive and direct evidence for the existence of supermassive black holes in the nuclei of galaxies and the first direct geometric distance estimate to a galaxy independent of the traditional multistep extragalactic distance ladder.

Nominations for the 2014 Grote Reber Medal may be mailed to Martin George, Queen Victoria Museum, Wellington St., Launceston, Tasmania 7250, Australia, or emailed to [email protected]. Deadline: 15 October 2013.