Bruce Medal
The Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal is awarded every year by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for outstanding lifetime contributions to astronomy. It is named after Catherine Wolfe Bruce, an American patroness of astronomy, and was first awarded in 1898.[1]
Prestige
The Bruce Medal has been described by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific as "one of the most prestigious and well-known awards in the Astrophysics community."[2] According to *Astronomy* magazine, the Bruce Gold Medal is "widely recognized as one of astronomy’s most prestigious awards."[3] The NASA Office of Space Telescope Science Institute called it the ASP’s "highest award given annually to a professional astronomer in recognition of a lifetime of outstanding achievement and contributions to astrophysics research."[4] The Linda Hall Library has noted that "the Bruce Medal has been awarded annually for 120 years, and it is one of the most prestigious awards an astronomer can receive."[5] The *Cornell Chronicle* has similarly called it the Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s "most prestigious award," noting that it recognizes lifetime achievement in astronomy.[6]
List of Bruce Medalists
Source: Astronomical Society of the Pacific
- 1898 – Simon Newcomb
- 1899 – Arthur Auwers
- 1900 – David Gill
- 1902 – Giovanni V. Schiaparelli
- 1904 – William Huggins
- 1906 – Hermann Carl Vogel
- 1908 – Edward C. Pickering
- 1909 – George William Hill
- 1911 – Henri Poincaré
- 1913 – Jacobus C. Kapteyn
- 1914 – Oskar Backlund
- 1915 – William Wallace Campbell
- 1916 – George Ellery Hale
- 1917 – Edward Emerson Barnard
- 1920 – Ernest W. Brown
- 1921 – Henri A. Deslandres
- 1922 – Frank W. Dyson
- 1923 – Benjamin Baillaud
- 1924 – Arthur Stanley Eddington
- 1925 – Henry Norris Russell
- 1926 – Robert G. Aitken
- 1927 – Herbert Hall Turner
- 1928 – Walter S. Adams
- 1929 – Frank Schlesinger
- 1930 – Max Wolf
- 1931 – Willem de Sitter
- 1932 – John S. Plaskett
- 1933 – Carl V.L. Charlier
- 1934 – Alfred Fowler
- 1935 – Vesto M. Slipher
- 1936 – Armin O. Leuschner
- 1937 – Ejnar Hertzsprung
- 1938 – Edwin P. Hubble
- 1939 – Harlow Shapley
- 1940 – Frederick H. Seares
- 1941 – Joel Stebbins
- 1942 – Jan H. Oort
- 1945 – E. Arthur Milne
- 1946 – Paul Merrill
- 1947 – Bernard Lyot
- 1948 – Otto Struve
- 1949 – Harold Spencer Jones
- 1950 – Alfred H. Joy
- 1951 – Marcel Minnaert
- 1952 – Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
- 1953 – Harold D. Babcock
- 1954 – Bertil Lindblad
- 1955 – Walter Baade
- 1956 – Albrecht Unsöld
- 1957 – Ira S. Bowen
- 1958 – William Wilson Morgan
- 1959 – Bengt Strömgren
- 1960 – Viktor A. Ambartsumian
- 1961 – Rudolph Minkowski
- 1962 – Grote Reber
- 1963 – Seth Barnes Nicholson
- 1964 – Otto Heckmann
- 1965 – Martin Schwarzschild
- 1966 – Dirk Brouwer
- 1967 – Ludwig Biermann
- 1968 – Willem J. Luyten
- 1969 – Horace W. Babcock
- 1970 – Fred Hoyle
- 1971 – Jesse Greenstein
- 1972 – Iosif S. Shklovskii
- 1973 – Lyman Spitzer Jr.
- 1974 – Martin Ryle
- 1975 – Allan R. Sandage
- 1976 – Ernst J. Öpik
- 1977 – Bart J. Bok
- 1978 – Hendrik C. van de Hulst
- 1979 – William A. Fowler
- 1980 – George Herbig
- 1981 – Riccardo Giacconi
- 1982 – E. Margaret Burbidge
- 1983 – Yakov B. Zel'dovich
- 1984 – Olin C. Wilson
- 1985 – Thomas G. Cowling
- 1986 – Fred L. Whipple
- 1987 – Edwin E. Salpeter
- 1988 – John G. Bolton
- 1989 – Adriaan Blaauw
- 1990 – Charlotte E. Moore Sitterly
- 1991 – Donald E. Osterbrock
- 1992 – Maarten Schmidt
- 1993 – Martin Rees
- 1994 – Wallace Sargent
- 1995 – P. James E. Peebles
- 1996 – Albert E. Whitford
- 1997 – Eugene Parker
- 1998 – Donald Lynden-Bell
- 1999 – Geoffrey R. Burbidge
- 2000 – Rashid A. Sunyaev
- 2001 – Hans A. Bethe
- 2002 – Bohdan Paczyński
- 2003 – Vera C. Rubin
- 2004 – Chūshirō Hayashi
- 2005 – Robert Kraft
- 2006 – Frank J. Low
- 2007 – Martin Harwit
- 2008 – Sidney van den Bergh
- 2009 – Frank H. Shu
- 2010 – Gerry Neugebauer
- 2011 – Jeremiah P. Ostriker
- 2012 – Sandra M. Faber
- 2013 – James E. Gunn
- 2014 – Kenneth Kellermann
- 2015 – Douglas N. C. Lin
- 2016 – Andrew Fabian
- 2017 – Nick Scoville
- 2018 – Tim Heckman
- 2019 – Martha P. Haynes
- 2020 – Prize suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic
- 2021 - Bruce Elmegreen
- 2022 - Ellen Gould Zweibel
- 2023 - Marcia J. Rieke
- 2024 - Chryssa Kouveliotou
See also
- List of astronomy awards
- Prizes named after people
- Sonoma State's Directory Archived June 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
References
- ^ "Annual Awards". Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Retrieved October 25, 2019.
- ^ "Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal". Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Retrieved August 15, 2025.
- ^ "Sidney van den Bergh wins Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal". Astronomy. Kalmbach Media. May 2, 2008. Retrieved August 15, 2025.
- ^ "Webb Telescope's Marcia Rieke Awarded Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal". NASA. NASA. November 2, 2023. Retrieved August 15, 2025.
- ^ "Catherine Wolfe Bruce". Linda Hall Library. Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology. March 22, 2019. Retrieved August 15, 2025.
- ^ Staff (June 27, 2007). "Astronomer Harwit awarded Bruce Medal for lifetime achievement". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved August 15, 2025.