Confessions of an Astronomer

Guest Speaker

Thursday, 2nd July 2026 (19:45 - 22:00)

Venue: Hybrid

This is a light-hearted and personal look at the life of a professional astronomer. In addition to the research and teaching, perhaps surprisingly, it can be packed with 'interest' in the widest sense of the word. The talk contains many amusing and exciting anecdotes; from being marooned with a steaming helium dewar in a cablecar in the Pyrenees, flying in an RAF Comet above the North Sea at 45,000ft and many exploits in Hawaii. The talk covers a wide range of astronomy, is lavishly illustrated and contains not a single equation!

Join online if you can't meet us at the meeting room HERE

Speaker: Ian Robson

Professor Robson has been Head of Dept of Physics and Astronomy at UCLAN; Director of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii; Director of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh and Director of the Science and Technology Facility Council’s Technology Department. He has undertaken extensive research in the fields of Active Galaxies and submillimetre astronomy, publishing over 200 papers, and has written an undergraduate textbook on Active Galactic Nuclei. Professor Robson is very active in outreach and was the first President of the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Commission for Communicating Astronomy with the Public. He led the UK programme for the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. He was the International Astronomical Union Assistant General Secretary for 2018–19 and has been President of the Society for Popular Astronomy and the Royal Scottish Society for the Arts. He was Vice President of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2021-23 and received the prestigious Service Award in 2024.