Catherine Heymans

Catherine Heymans is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Professor of Observational Cosmology at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the GCCL Institute at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. She is well known for her research using deep sky observations to map the invisible dark matter and mysterious dark energy in our universe. Her work has been recognised with the Royal Astronomical Society's William Herschel Medal in 2022 and the Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award in 2018. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the Leopoldina, Germany's national academy. Catherine is a well known science communicator, speaking at art, music, comedy, philosophy and science festivals. She regularly features as a space, physics and astronomy expert on BBC radio and television, and her first popular science book, How to Design a Universe, will be published by Bloomsbury in September 2026. Q1: Why are you excited to be part of New Scientist Live this year? I adore chatting to intere