The Carlyle S. Beals Award was established by CASCA in 1981 in recognition of the groundbreaking research of the late C.S. Beals. The Beals Prize was originally awarded to provide a grant for travel to a General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (every three years). In 1988, however, it was first awarded in its present form: to a Canadian astronomer or an astronomer working in Canada, in recognition of outstanding achievement in research (either as a specific achievement or as a lifetime of research). The recipient shall be invited to address the Society at its Annual Meeting. To be considered for the award, nominees must be current CASCA members.
An award is now considered every second year, in even-numbered years. The nomination package must consist of a joint letter of nomination by at least two members of CASCA, the CV of the candidate, and three external letters of support (e.g., from international experts in the nominee’s field). No letter should exceed three pages in length. No other material should be submitted. Please submit nomination packages entirely in electronic form to the Chair of the Awards committee. The deadline for submissions for the 2016 award is 19 January 2016.
2014 Carlyle S. Beal Award
CASCA is pleased to announce the selection of Dr. Harvey Richer, of the University of British Columbia, as the recipient of the 2014 Carlyle S. Beals Award.
Prof. Richer received his Ph.D. in 1970 from the University of Rochester, where he studied the physical properties of carbon stars under the supervision of Prof. Stuart Sharpless. Soon afterwards, he joined the faculty at the University of British Columbia where he has remained ever since. An internationally recognized expert on stellar populations in the Milky Way, star clusters and external galaxies, Prof. Richer was a pioneer in the study of globular clusters with CCDs, carrying out a number of landmark studies of these important stellar systems beginning with CFHT in the mid 1980s and continuing until the present day with the Hubble Space Telescope. Notable highlights from his more than 140 refereed publications include the discovery of young globular clusters in the outer halo, and a series of papers characterizing the faint but extensive white dwarf populations belonging to the globular clusters M4, NGC 6397 and 47 Tucanae.
In addition to his research on globular clusters and their constituent stars, Prof. Richer has worked on wide range of topics in astrophysics, including the mass function of the Galactic halo, optical counterparts of X-ray sources, and ground-layer adaptive optics systems for ground-based telescopes.
CASCA congratulates Prof. Richer on a distinguished career of scientific achievement and community service.
| 2012 |  David Crampton |
“Carpe Lux. Beal’s Lecture 2012″ View Citation |
| 2010 | Bill Harris | “Between Galaxies and Stars” |
| 2008 | Ray Carlberg | “Preliminary SNLS Third Year Results” |
| 2006 | Georges Michaud | “Atomic Diffusion in Pop II Stars, Globular Clusters and WMAP” |
| 2004 | Ernest R. Seaquist | “The Galaxy M82 – a Rosetta Stone for the Starburst Phenomenon” |
| 2002 | John Landstreet | “Magnetic Fields in Stars” |
| 2000 | Gilles Fontaine | “The Potential of White Dwarf Cosmochronology” |
| 1998 | Gordon A. H. Walker | “Challenges for the New Millennium: Some Persistent Astronomical Mysteries” |
| 1996 | J. Richard Bond | “Cosmic Background Anisotropies and Large Scale Structure: Past, Present and Future” |
| 1994 | Peter G. Martin | “Interstellar Pinball: A Sometimes Shocking Story of Excited Molecular Hydrogen” |
| 1992 | Rene Racine | “Support for Astronomy” |
| 1990 | Scott Tremaine | “Is the Solar System Stable?” |
| 1988 | Sidney van den Bergh | “Supernovae and their Remnants” |
| 1985 | Anne B. Underhill | |
| 1982 | John B. Hutchings |
