Harvey B. Richer Gold Medal for Early Career Research in Astronomy

The Richer Medal was established in 2016 thanks to a generous gift from Harvey B. Richer, a former Director of CASCA and Professor at the University of British Columbia.

The Richer Medal is awarded every second year, in odd-numbered years, in recognition of significant and sustained early career research in astronomy. To be eligible, the nominee must be a member of CASCA in good standing, and a Canadian astronomer or an astronomer working in Canada. The nominee will normally have received his or her PhD degree within the previous 10 years; allowances will be made for extended leaves of up to two years (e.g. maternity or paternity leaves, medical leaves, etc.). However, no individual may be nominated for both the Richer (early career) and Martin (mid-career) prizes in the same year.

The award consists of a gold medal, plus a certificate. The recipient shall be invited to address the Society at its Annual General Meeting. The nomination package must be submitted entirely in electronic form to the Chair of the Awards committee and should consist of:

  • A joint letter of nomination (see nomination guidelines) signed by at least two members of CASCA in good standing;
  • The CV of the nominee;
  • Three external letters of support (e.g., from international experts in the nominee’s field). No letter should exceed two pages in length.

No other material should be submitted. The deadline for nominations for the 2025 Award is 15 January 2025.

2023 Harvey B. Richer Gold Medal

Masui

CASCA is pleased to announce Dr. Kiyoshi Masui as the recipient of the 2023 Harvey B. Richer Gold Medal, in recognition of significant and sustained early career research in astronomy.

Dr. Masui obtained his PhD from the University of Toronto and is currently an Assistant Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has played a key leadership role in both the CHIME and CHIME/FRB Collaborations, both technically and scientifically, and contributed substantially to the success of these world-leading projects. At the same time, he has provided exceptional mentorship and training to the young scientists working on these projects. His contributions have demonstrated impressive breadth, from instrumentation development to scientific data analysis, theory, and interpretation, and from 21 cm cosmology to fast radio bursts (FRBs). Dr. Masui has made pioneering and high-impact contributions to our understanding of the FRB phenomenon, for example by leading the publication of the first CHIME/FRB catalog which enabled the discovery of key scientific properties of the FRB population. As project scientist, he is currently leading CHIME’s next major instrumentation effort, CHIME/FRB Outriggers.

CASCA is delighted to recognize Dr. Masui’s achievements with this award.

Recipients to date have been:
2021 HložekRenée Hložek Cosmology
2019 CowanNicolas Cowan Exoplanets
2017 LafreniereDavid Lafreniere Exoplanets

Comments are closed.