Exeter astrophysicist elected President of British Astronomical Association
Dr Andrew Wilson, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Exeter’s Astrophysics Group, has been elected as President of the British Astronomical Association (BAA).
The role, which lasts for two to three years, will see Dr Wilson leading the Association’s activities and chairing the Board of Trustees.
Founded in 1890, the BAA supports the advancement of astronomy through scientific observation, analysis and collaboration. Primarily an association of amateur astronomers (more often now referred to as “citizen scientists”), its members contribute to scientific research across astronomy, including co-authorship of research papers.
Dr Wilson’s appointment reflects the longstanding and close collaboration between the professional and amateur astronomy communities. Having completed an undergraduate degree in Astronomy and Physics at University College London, he had a successful career in the financial technology sector.
He maintained his interest as an amateur astronomer with the BAA, where he developed skills in scientific observation and data analysis.
In 2015 he was awarded the BAA Merlin medal for his contribution to the advancement of astronomy by developing an online database of variable star measurements made by amateur astronomers from 1840 to the present day. This database gives researchers easy access to stellar magnitudes and spectra obtained by the amateur astronomy community.
He subsequently transitioned to professional astronomy, completing a part-time PhD in 2024 followed by a postdoc, both at the University of Exeter.
Dr Wilson’s research in the Exeter Astrophysics Group combines existing scientific knowledge with explainable machine learning to identify young stars in our Milky Way galaxy. The group’s unique approach tests the machine learning results by observing the candidate young stars with the WEAVE spectrograph on the William Herschel Telescope at La Palma.
