Royal Astronomical Society
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) was started as the Astronomical Society of London in 1820 in order to support astronomical research (mainly carried on at the time by 'gentleman astronomers' rather than professionals). It became the Royal Astronomical Society in 1831 on receiving its Royal Charter from William IV. A Supplemental Charter in 1915 opened up the fellowship to women. It is the UK adhering organisation to the International Astronomical Union and a member of the Science Council.| Table of contents |
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2 Fellowship 3 Gold Medal 4 External Links |
One of the major activities of the RAS is publishing refereed journals. It currently publishes two world-class research journals, MNRAS in astronomy and GJI in geophysics, and the 'glossy' A&G. The full list of journals published by the RAS, with abbreviations as used for the NASA ADS bibliographic codes is:
Members of the RAS are styled fellows, and may use the postnominals FRAS. Fellowship is open to anyone over the age of 18 who is considered acceptable to the society. As a result of the society's foundation in a time before there were may professional astronomers, no qualifications are required. However, around three quarters of fellows are either professional astronomers or PhD students.
The Gold Medal is the RAS's highest award. Up to 1847 these were awarded irregularly. 1848 saw a record number 12 awards being made, prior to the awards being limited to one a year from 1849. This continued, apart from 1886 when two awards were made and a few years when no award was made until 1963. Since 1964 there have been two awards in most years - one in Astronomy and one in Geophysics.
Notable recipients of the Gold Medal include:
Publications
Fellowship
Gold Medal
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