Annette Mairi Nelson Ferguson

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

observational astrophysicist who specialises in the area of

galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...

evolution. She is a professor at the Institute for Astronomy, Edinburgh, and holds the Personal Chair in Observational Astrophysics at the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh.

Career

Ferguson's research focuses on conducting observations of

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

s and interstellar gas in nearby galaxies to gain insights into the formation and evolution of systems in the Milky Way. Much of her recent work has focused on the Andromeda Galaxy, a giant spiral galaxy in our galactic neighbourhood. Her research exploits ground-based telescopes in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

, Chile, and Hawaii as well as sophisticated instruments on board the Hubble Space Telescope. Ferguson is also involved in planning for future exploitation of data collected by the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

's Euclid mission, and the

Vera C. Rubin Observatory The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, previously referred to as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), is an astronomical observatory currently under construction in Chile. Its main task will be carrying out a synoptic astronomical survey, the L ...

, which is currently under construction in Chile. Originally from Scotland, Ferguson graduated with a BSc with Distinction in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Toronto, and obtained a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

Astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

from the Johns Hopkins University in

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. She has previously held postdoctoral fellowships at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, the

Kapteyn Astronomical Institute The Kapteyn Astronomical Institute is the department of astronomy of the University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a Public university#Continental Europe, pu ...

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

, Netherlands, and was a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at the

Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik The Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) is a research institute located in Garching, just north of Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It is one of many scientific research institutes belonging to the Max Planck Society. The MPA is widely consider ...

Garching Garching bei München (''Garching near Munich'') or Garching is a town in Bavaria, Germany, near Munich. It is the home of several research institutes and university departments on its campus. It became a city on 14 September 1990. Location The ...

, Germany. Ferguson returned to Scotland in 2005, taking up a Lectureship at

The University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI ...

, before being promoted to a Readership in 2007, and a Professorship in 2013.

Honours

Ferguson received the Annie J. Cannon Award in 2003, and was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

, Scotland's National Academy for Science and Letters, in March 2016. In 2017 she received the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Annette Living people Scottish astronomers British women astronomers Recipients of the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Scottish women scientists 21st-century Scottish scientists Academics of the University of Edinburgh University of Toronto alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh People from Dumbarton