Two prizes, for our members Monika Mościbrodzka and Heino Falcke

The British Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) has individually honored Monika Mościbrodzka and Heino Falcke (both Radboud University) for their research into black holes. Mościbrodzka receives the Eddington Medal, an honor for theoretical research. Falcke receives the Herschel Medal, an appreciation for observational research.

Monika Mościbrodzka was one of the coordinators of the EHT Polarimetry Working Group that published the first image of the black hole in M87 in polarized light in 2021 (see image on the left). She is coordinator of the EHT Theory Working Group and was a member of the EHT Science Council. Previous winners of the Eddington Medal include George Lemaitre (big bang theory), Stephen Hawking and Nobel laureate Roger Penrose.

Falcke is co-founder of the EHT and currently a board member of the EHT. He coined the term "shadow of a black hole" and as early as 200 predicted the shape of the shadow that would be observed in 2019. Past recipients of the Herschel Medal include pulsar discoverer Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Nobel Prize winner Reinhard Genzel.