2017 MERAC Prize to Kevin Schawinski
The 2017 MERAC Prize of the European Astronomical Society for the Best Early Career Researcher in Observational Astrophysics goes to Kevin Schawinski, Professor of the Astrophysics of Galaxies and Black Holes (D-PHYS).
Kevin Schwinski receives the award "for groundbreaking work on the galaxy–black-hole connection and innovative use of citizen science in astrophysics".
Schawinski has been an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Astronomy since 2012. Before joining the ETH faculty, he undertook research at Oxford University (2004–2008) and Yale University (2008–2012).
He has made major advances in the observational understanding of the feedback exerted on a galaxy by outflows from an active, super-massive back hole at its centre. Schawinski is also strongly engaged in citizen science, recruiting large numbers of people from the general public to engage with science. As a co-founder of the Galaxy Zoo project he involved several hundred thousand citizen scientists to classify nearly a million galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
Further information on the website of the Departement of Physics
Fondation MERAC
The Fondation MERAC (Mobilising European Research in Astrophysics and Cosmology) is a non-profit foundation with headquarters in Switzerland, and sponsors since 2013 every year three MERAC Prizes of 20,000 Euros, for the three categories theoretical astrophysics, observational astrophysics and new technologies. The prizes alternate by year for best early-career researchers and for best doctoral thesis.