WVU professor named prestigious Fellow of the Royal Society, the ‘Oscar’ of the science world

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WDTV) – A West Virginia University professor has been elected to one of the top scientific academies in the world.

Duncan Lorimer, professor of physics and astronomy in the WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, has been selected as 2024 Fellow of the Royal Society of London for his contributions to pulsar astrophysics and his role in the discovery of fast radio bursts, according to a news release.

This honor has been described as “the scientific equivalent to a lifetime achievement Oscar,” officials said.

The Royal Society, which was founded in 1660, is now the oldest continuously running organization of its kind and is an independent scientific academy devoted to advancing science for the betterment of humanity. Annually, the organization elects new fellows and foreign members from a variety of disciplines in the scientific community who have demonstrated excellence in furthering understanding of fields including the physical sciences, mathematics, medicine and engineering.

Lorimer, who also serves as associate dean for research in the Eberly College, first received the news in March, officials said.

“I got the news after coming out of class,” he said. “Interestingly, we’d been studying Hawking radiation from black hole explosions in class that day, which was one of the landmark achievements of Stephen Hawking (who was elected to the Royal Society in 1974) and something that has been hypothesized as a source of fast radio bursts. My immediate reaction when I started looking at past and present fellows was, ‘Wow!’ Being connected to this legacy was quite awe-inspiring and emotional for me.”

Lorimer is one of 90 researchers to be elected to the Royal Society this year.

“Professor Lorimer’s election to one of the top scientific academies in the world is a testament to the quality of the University’s research enterprise,” WVU Vice President for Research Fred King said. “Over the past two decades, he has helped build the WVU astrophysics profile into a global leader.”

There are currently around 1,800 Royal Society fellows. Fellowship has been awarded to renowned scientists throughout history including Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Mary Cartwright, Dorothy Hodgkin, Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, Elizabeth Blackburn and Donna Strickland.

Lorimer is best known for his role in the discovery of the first fast radio burst — an intense, unexplained pulse of energy from billions of light years away that last only a few milliseconds. Since this discovery in 2007, several thousand more fast radio bursts have been discovered, and WVU faculty and students are part of an international group actively engaged in studying these enigmatic sources.

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