Astronomy has experienced tremendous growth and development during the past fifty years as the entire electromagnetic spectrum from radio waves to gamma rays was opened to investigation. Remarkable progress has been achieved in our understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe; the structure and dynamics of galaxies; the birth, life, and death of stars and stellar systems; and the formation and ubiquity of planetary systems. The names of exotic objects such as supernovae, quasars, pulsars, and black holes have entered the public lexicon, and have captured the imagination of people, young and old, all over the world.
A new golden age of astronomy can be expected in the twenty-first century as the research tools of the more traditional disciplines are brought to bear on the great astronomical problems, and as novel windows are opened to the universe, using neutrinos and gravitational radiation to explore extreme configurations of matter and energy not accessible to terrestrial laboratories.
2019
■ Edward C Stone
2018
■ Jean-Loup Puget
2017
■ Simon D M White
2016
■ Ronald W P Drever, Kip S Thorne and Rainer Weiss
2015
■ William J Borucki
2014
■ Daniel Eisenstein, Shaun Cole and John A Peacock
2013
■ Steven A Balbus and John F Hawley
2012
■ David C Jewitt and Jane Luu
2011
■ Enrico Costa and Gerald J Fishman
2010
■ Charles L Bennett, Lyman A Page Jr and David Spergel
2009
■ Frank H Shu
2008
■ Reinhard Genzel
2007
■ Peter Goldreich
2006
■ Saul Perlmutter, Adam Riess and Brian Schmidt
2005
■ Geoffrey Marcy and Michel Mayor
2004
■ P James E Peebles