The Institute of Physics (UK) has decided to select Professor Hiranya Peiris as Award Winner of 2018 Fred Hoyle Medal and Prize. The Institute of Physics Awards ‘aim to build and reinforce a sense of community by recognising and rewarding excellence in individuals and teams who have made a contribution to physics in the UK and Ireland’. The Fred Hoyle Prize is given ‘for distinguished contributions to astrophysics, gravitational physics or cosmology’.

Hiranya Peiris was recruited as professor in cosmoparticle physics to Department of Physics in the autumn 2016. She is also appointed as director of the Oskar Klein Centre (OKC). She is presently working 50% at Stockholm University and 50% at University College London, where she also holds a professor position.

She is happy to receive this medal and prize and she concludes:
’Throughout my career I have been motivated by finding unexpected connections between different research areas. Right now we are facing deep questions in physics which cannot be answered by narrow approaches, and I am very honoured that the IOP has recognised the value of an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the Universe.’

Our warmest congratulations to Hiranya Peiris to this success! We are very happy to have her as professor at our department and we are convinced that she successfully will lead OKC for an exciting future!