Professor Sheila Rowan, Director of the University of Glasgow’s Institute for Gravitational Research, has been named as the winner of one of the Institute of Physics’ 2016 awards for her work in gravitational waves.

Recently appointed as Scotland’s new Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Rowan said: “I am honoured to receive the Institute of Physics Hoyle Medal and prize and would like to acknowledge the extraordinary contribution of my colleagues at the Institute for Gravitational Research and across the UK field."

The IOP announced the winners of its medals and prizes for 2016, in recognition of outstanding work by physicists in research, leadership, outreach and engagement

The IoP said that Professor Rowan was being recognised “for having devised and implemented a range of refinements in precision laser interferometers, pioneering aspects of the technology of gravitational wave observatories”.

Professor Rowan was elected chair of the Gravitational Waves International Committee in 2015. She is a fellow of the IOP and of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the American Physical Society. She was awarded a Leverhulme Prize for Astronomy and Astrophysics in 2005 and a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award in 2010, and was made an MBE in 2011.

President of the IOP Professor Roy Sambles said: “The IOP Awards recognise outstanding individuals and teams within our physics community, not only to celebrate their creativity, hard work and dedication but also to inspire others to strive to achieve excellence in what they do.

“The recipients represent some of the best and brightest minds involved with physics in academic and industrial research, in education and in outreach.”

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First published: 1 July 2016