Star teacher

Ogden Physics Teacher Fellow Dr Becky Parker, Head of Physics at Simon Langton Grammar School, has won the first RAS Patrick Moore Medal in recognition of her outstanding work as a teacher of astronomy.

Since her arrival at the maintained state Grammar School in Canterbury, Dr Parker has established and is Director of the Langton Star Centre, a role sponsored by the Ogden Trust. The Centre is a specialist facility with laboratories, classrooms and an astronomical observatory. Pupils, particularly those at sixth form level, are given the opportunity to join collaborative astronomy and space projects, with the most prominent of these being the Langton Ultimate Cosmic Ray Detector (LUCID), a UK schools experiment that will fly on the TechDemoSat-1 built by Surrey Satellites Technology. Dr Parker developed LUCID, following up on an idea she had while visiting CERN and raised £60,000 to build the detector.

For further information on Dr Parker’s work and this award visit the websites for the Langton Star Centre and the Royal Astronomical Society.