The United Kingdom obtains the first royal astronomer woman in 350 years

The astronomer, Professor Michele Dougherty, did not study the sciences in secondary school – but was rather inspired to learn more about space after having used the telescope of his father.

Now she is the first woman to be named the royal astronomer of the United Kingdom in the 350 years of post history, and is part of the team that sends probes to the frozen moons of Jupiter.

She told BBC News that she hoped that her appointment on Wednesday as official advisor to King Charles III on astronomical issues would inspire more women and girls to study science.

The new royal astronomer added that she also wanted to use her new role to “open the eyes” to the wonders of space.

“I want to get involved with the public, excite them on what we do in astronomy, but also clearly how important what we do is for the British economy,” said Professor Dougherty.

Professor Dougherty is involved in one of the most exciting space missions to date: an investigation by the European space agency with the frozen moons of Jupiter to assess if they have the potential to support life.

“It would be surprising if there was no life in our solar system,” she said, laughing, with unbridled enthusiasm for which she is known.

His trip to Jupiter started at the age of 10 and saw the planet through a telescope that she, her sister and his father built.

“It was then that I had my first view of Jupiter and four great moons, I never thought that I send instruments on a spaceship there,” she said.

“I have to pinch myself at the idea and I have to pinch myself the fact that I am now royal astronomer!”

The realization of Professor Dougherty is all the more remarkable because she has not studied the sciences in high school in South Africa where she grew up.

“I had the choice between schools. One of them taught science, but none of my friends went there,” she said. “So, as a young 13 year old child, I thought, I want to go with my friends.”

But the young professor Dougherty was so good in mathematics that she was admitted to a science class at university.

“The first two years were difficult. It was like learning a new language,” she said.

But she quickly caught up and came to the United Kingdom to become one of the main scientists in the country’s space, showing enormous courage as well as talents.

“I said yes to things that I did not know how to do it, and I learned as you go,” she told me.

The role of the royal astronomer dates back to the creation of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in 1675. John Flamsteed de Derby was the first person to fulfill the role. At the time, work consisted mainly in advising the king on the use of stars to improve navigation at sea.

The main conservative of the observatory, Dr Louise Devoy, explained that work has evolved over the years, to become one of the most important scientific voices in the country.

“In the 1800s, the Royal Astronome began to be called upon to act as government councilor, which may be advisable on railways or bridges or telegraphy, a whole range of subjects beyond astronomy,” she said.

“If we pass quickly in the 20th century, it is more about developing international collaborations, which is why you have British astronomers working in telescopes in Chile, in the Canary Islands and even at the James Webb space telescope.”

More than three and a half centuries, 15 men have held the post of the oldest astronomer for the entire United Kingdom. But at the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh, Professor Catherine Heyman occupies an equivalent position as a royal astronomer for Scotland since 2021.

She was delighted to hear about the appointment of Professor Dougherty.

“Over the past 350 years, the title of royal astronomer has been detained by a white male astronomer, and this genre reflected what the astronomical community looked like in the last centuries. But things are changing,” she said.

“Science becomes more diverse, which must be if we want to answer these big questions, and I am absolutely delighted now that the two royal astronomers across the United Kingdom are women, reflecting the fact that science is for everyone.”

Professor Dougherty herself does not want to make a big problem because she is the first woman to hold the post on the level of the United Kingdom, but she hopes that it will encourage others to follow her traces.

“I think it’s important. I think that when young children in particular see someone who looks like a job, they think they would never have the opportunity to do, it changes their state of mind,” she told BBC News.

Professor Dougherty lived this when she was head of the Imperial College physics department between 2018 and 2024. Meanwhile, the percentage of first -year first year students who came to Imperial rose from around 19% to 25%.

“This is not a huge change,” she said, “but there was a positive change. And I think it is because the students saw that I was in a role they could aspire in the future.”

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