UofG set to host first annual John Brown Memorial Lecture
Published: 2 November 2023
The University of Glasgow is set to play host to the first Royal Astronomical Society annual lecture named in honour of one of Scotland's most distinguished astronomers.
The University of Glasgow is set to play host to the first Royal Astronomical Society annual lecture named in honour of one of Scotland's most distinguished astronomers.
The inaugural John Brown Memorial Lecture, set to take place on Tuesday 5th December, is named in honour of the 10th Astronomer Royal for Scotland, who died in 2019. 
Professor John Brown receiving the RAS Gold Medal at RAS NAM 2012. Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)
The Royal Astronomical Society have arranged the event in honour of Prof Brown, who was Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Glasgow and served as Astronomer Royal for Scotland for 14 years from 1995.
Professor Brown held positions at the University from 1968 until 2019, and his research advanced the field of solar and stellar plasma theory and observation.
As Astronomer Royal for Scotland, he was a keen advocate for science communication, with a strong interest in the interface between the arts and science, often incorporating magic tricks into his public lectures.
Professor Randall Stevenson, Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, will deliver the lecture, which focuses on public interest in comets between the early 1800s and the early 1900s, a period sometimes referred to as the ‘comet-crazed century.’
The lecture will describe the large numbers of spectacular comets appearing at the time, discussing their effects on literature, art and popular culture, and on the development of cometary science itself.
The event will also feature an introduction from Professor Mike Edmunds, president of the Royal Astronomical Society, and a poetry reading from Rab Wilson, one of Scotland's most accomplished poets and a renowned Burns scholar.
Professor Graham Woan, of the University of Glasgow’s School of Physics & Astronomy, said: “I am delighted that the University is hosting this first memorial lecture. John had a special interest in comets, and how they behave when they plummet into the Sun, so this is a talk he would have very much enjoyed.”
The John Brown Memorial Lecture will take place in the Yudowitz Room at the University of Glasgow’s Wolfson Medical School Building between 5pm and 8pm on Tuesday 5th December. Click here to book tickets to attend.
First published: 2 November 2023
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