James Binney awarded 2015 Occhialini Medal and Prize

Merton's Professorial Fellow in Physics James Binney FRS has been awarded the Occhialini Medal and Prize for 2015 by the Società Italiana di Fisica (SIF - the Italian Physical Society).

The award recognises his work on galaxy dynamics, in particular the development of an understanding of how galaxies exchange gas with the intergalactic medium, and of how this exchange controls the evolution of galaxy morphology.

In 2007 the SIF, together with the UK-based Institute of Physics, instituted the Occhialini Medal and Prize in honour of Giuseppe Occhialini, the Italian physicist who contributed to the discovery of the pion in 1947 whilst working at the University of Bristol. The award is made alternately by the council of one of the two societies to a physicist selected from a list of nominees submitted by the other.

The award - a silver medal together with a prize of €3000 - will be presented in Rome in September.