Nicolas Cowan awarded CASCA’s 2019 Harvey B. Richer Gold Medal

Nicolas Cowan, professor at McGill University and member of iREx, is the recipient of the 2019 Harvey B. Richer Gold Medal.

This Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA) medal is awarded every two years in recognition of major contributions by a young Canadian astrophysicist. It was established thanks to the generous donation of Harvey B. Richer, former director of CASCA and professor at the University of British Columbia. The first edition of this prize was awarded to David Lafrenière, also a member of iREx, in 2017.

Nicolas Cowan is an established leader in the field of exoplanets through his work on high precision infrared photometry, determining the energy balance in exoplanet atmospheres, and using exoplanets as `laboratories’ for planetary science. Dr. Cowan has 80 papers with a citation count of over 4700. In addition to this high level of scholarship, Dr. Cowan has an impressive record of supervision and training, having worked with 2 postdoctoral research scientists, 9 graduate students, and 36 undergraduate students.

The entire iREx team wishes to congratulate Nicolas Cowan for this prestigious award!