Prof. Catherine Heymans
A RADIANT SMILE SHINES LIGHT ON THE DARK UNIVERSE
The Astronomer Royal for Scotland is to speak at SIGMA, Moray’s Astronomy Club on Friday 2nd October 2026
Catherine Heymans has received many awards for outstanding research into the structure of the universe and both dark matter and dark energy using weak gravitational lensing. Many might first learn about her from BBC sounds: The Life Scientific; Discovery; and Brainwaves, but she is such a lively and engaging communicator that it is an easy transition to read her work and watch her videos on the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh website: Catherine Heymans.
Her prestige as an astrophysicist is evident through a wide range of media and social media platforms as well as her fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and her energy is admirable, balancing the role of 11th Astronomer Royal for Scotland with her professional responsibilities as Professor at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the German Centre for Cosmological Lensing.
She is working on the three of the largest deep ground-based surveys to investigate the mass distribution (i.e. more and less dense regions) across the universe, comparisons with the cosmic microwave background and the Hubble tension, and much more. This work is so important because she was the first to suggest that there is a crack in the standard model of cosmology. We are watching with bated breath to find out where this leads.
We are extremely lucky that her latest book has a publication date of 10th September and there will be copies available for you to purchase at our October meeting, where Catherine will sign your copy for you.
The publisher, Bloomsbury Sigma, provides the following description:
In How to Design a Universe, acclaimed astrophysicist Catherine Heymans takes you on a humorous and mind-bending journey through the science of reality itself. From the quantum quirks of subatomic particles to the cosmic mysteries of dark matter and the secrets of the human senses, Heymans explores whether humanity could ever create a virtual universe as rich and diverse as our own - and what that means for our sense of self, free will and consciousness.
Blending personal stories, pop culture, cutting-edge technology and ground-breaking experiments, this book makes the biggest questions in science accessible and urgent. How to Design a Universe will change the way you see the world - and your place in it.