Professor Michele Dougherty has made history by becoming the first female Astronomer Royal in the prestigious title’s 350-year existence. The leading space physicist, who has worked on major space missions to Saturn and Jupiter, helped make groundbreaking discoveries including evidence of water vapor jets shooting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus, suggesting it could support life. Remarkably, Dougherty didn’t study science in secondary school while growing up in South Africa, only picking up the subject later during her university studies.
The honorary position, created in 1675 by King Charles II, is awarded to prominent astronomers who advise the monarch on astronomical matters. Dougherty has already earned numerous accolades, including being only the second woman in nearly a century to receive the Royal Society’s Hughes Medal for outstanding research in 2008. She currently serves as the lead investigator for the European Space Agency’s JUICE spacecraft, which is scheduled to orbit Jupiter’s largest moon in 2032. As the newly appointed Astronomer Royal, Dougherty is excited to engage the public in astronomy and show how important astronomical discoveries are to everyday life, proving that it’s never too late to pursue your passion for science.