Professor James Binney awarded Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal

Professor Binney follows in the footsteps of Arthur Eddington, Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble, Stephen Hawking, and Jocelyn Bell Burnell in receiving the Society’s highest honour, which dates back 200 years. Since 1964, two Gold Medals have been awarded each year: one for astronomy, and one for geophysics.

Professor Binney said: ‘I am delighted to be honoured by the RAS by the award of this year's Gold Medal. It was my great good fortune to be a theorist at a time of extraordinary progress in astronomy, mostly driven by spectacular advances in instrumentation.’

‘And most of what I've achieved has been in collaboration with generations of brilliant students and postdocs – this honour must be shared with them.’

Professor Binney's research has significantly contributed to our understanding of elliptical galaxies, galaxy clusters, and of the Milky Way. His DPhil research, undertaken at the University of Oxford, focused on understanding the sizes and masses of galaxies by studying how hot gas, heated by shocks, cools down during the early stages of galaxy formation. This work was highly influential, and gas cooling remains one of the key ingredients in modern galaxy formation models. After holding several post-doctoral positions, including a position at Princeton University, he returned to Oxford in 1981 where he has remained since.

I am delighted to be honoured by the RAS by the award of this year's Gold Medal. It was my great good fortune to be a theorist at a time of extraordinary progress in astronomy, mostly driven by spectacular advances in instrumentation.

Professor James Binney, Department of Physics, University of Oxford

Over his career, Professor Binney’s work has also led to an understanding of the role that black holes play in limiting star formation as well as the role that a galaxy’s structure plays in its chemical evolution. He later contributed significantly to the work that generated the standard model for the mass distribution of the Milky Way. This is now being revised by the current flood of data from the Gaia observatory, and Professor Binney is playing an active role at the heart of these developments, which continue to exploit the theoretical methods he developed.

He said: ‘For the last nearly 20 years, I have focused on modelling our own Galaxy and I am still trying to get a better understanding of how its dark matter - which accounts for 90% of its mass - is distributed. Our Galaxy is a complicated beast and sophisticated dynamical models of it are needed to synthesize into a coherent picture the enormous volume of observational data that now bears on its structure and history.’

Professor Binney has authored over 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals and several textbooks, including Galactic Dynamics, considered a standard work of reference in its field. He has served on many funding bodies in the UK and abroad, and is both a Fellow of the Royal Society and an International Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Professor Jim Naismith, Head of Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division at the University of Oxford, said: “This prestigious accolade is a testament to Professor Binney’s extraordinary contributions to our understanding of galaxies and their evolution. His ground-breaking research has shaped the field of astrophysics and continues to influence the next generation of scientists.

"Professor Binney’s work exemplifies the very best of Oxford’s tradition of academic excellence and discovery. To join the ranks of such luminaries as Arthur Eddington, Stephen Hawking, and Jocelyn Bell Burnell is a richly deserved honour, and we are immensely proud to celebrate this achievement with him."

The full list of 2025 award winners can be found on the Royal Astronomical Society website.