Professor Paul S. Cannon and Dr Sean Elvidge are two of the eight International Union of Radio Science (URSI) award winners for 2023, which recognise significant scientific research and leadership in the field of radio science.
URSI catalyses and coordinates scientific and engineering research in the various fields of radio science through forty-four globally distributed member committees and individual members. Their awards are presented at the opening ceremony of the URSI General Assembly and Scientific Symposia (GASS) every three years. The 2023 GASS will take place in August in Sapporo, Japan.
The Rawer Gold Medal remembers the work and life of Professor Karl Rawer, the father of the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI). In 2023 the Rawer Gold Medal will be awarded to Professor Paul S. Cannon, OBE, FREng. He is cited “for his contributions to radio science and the URSI community, specifically, to measurements of space weather and understanding its system impact”.
Karl Rawer was an exemplary scientist who recognised the importance of choosing important research questions and then galvanising the international community to collaboratively address those questions. I am highly honoured to be awarded the 2023 Karl Rawer Gold Medal, and I hope that, in my own way, I have followed his example. My thanks go to the URSI Board and to the German Member Committee for endowing this medal.
Professor Paul S. Cannon
The Koga Gold Medal remembers the work and life of Professor Issac Koga, who is best known for inventing a piezoelectric crystal unit with zero frequency-temperature coefficients. In 2023 the Issac Koga Gold Medal will be awarded to Associate Professor Dr Sean Elvidge, PhD. He is cited “for his ground-breaking work in ionospheric modelling and its operational deployment to the broader community”.
Notes for the Editor
- For media enquiries, please contact the University of Birmingham Press Office, tel: +44 (0)781 3343348.
- The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 8,000 international students from over 150 countries.
- Radio science describes the knowledge and study of electromagnetic fields and waves.
- URSI operates under the auspices of the International Council for Science (ISC) and is one of its 45 scientific unions, associations and similar bodies which work alongside national academies of science (the Royal Society in the UK) and engineering (the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK), and other leadership organisations.
