Earth & Space
American Astronomical Society honors four UC Santa Cruz affiliates
At this week’s national gathering, astronomy and astrophysics professors Bryan Gaensler, Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, and Connie Rockosi were honored for outstanding contributions to the field, as was alumna Kathryn Johnston
From left to right, Science Division Dean Bryan Gaensler and Professors Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz and Connie Rockosi
The American Astronomical Society (AAS) honored four scientists affiliated with the University of California, Santa Cruz, for outstanding contributions to the field. At the 247th AAS meeting, the society named Science Division Dean Bryan Gaensler and Professor Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz among the 23 new fellows chosen for 2026.
In addition, Professor Connie Rockosi—also affiliated with UC Observatories—was honored for her significant contributions to spectrographs and instruments at several ground-based observatories. In its presentation of the Joseph Weber Award for Astronomical Instrumentation, AAS listed Rockosi’s critical leadership roles on many impactful projects over her career. They include work on the Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrograph and Keck Cosmic Web Imager at Keck Observatory, the Shane Adaptive Optics Infrared Camera at Lick Observatory, the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey instrument for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument on the Mayall Telescope.
Being named a AAS Fellow is an honor bestowed on less than 0.5% of the society’s membership each year and recognizes extraordinary achievement and service in the form of original research and publications, innovative contributions to astronomical techniques or instrumentation, significant contributions to education and public outreach, and noteworthy service to astronomy and to the society itself.
Gaensler was cited for his contributions to the fundamental understanding of cosmic magnetic fields, time-domain astronomy, pulsar winds, and the structure of the Milky Way. The society also noted Gaensler’s “outstanding leadership of scientific collaborations and organizations,” as well as numerous service contributions to the astronomy community.
Ramirez-Ruiz, recently named the first Latino president of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, was cited by AAS for his “foundational contributions to high-energy astrophysics and groundbreaking leadership in transforming the landscape for historically marginalized groups in astronomy.” Ramirez-Ruiz has built STEM training research programs at UC Santa Cruz for over decade. The mentoring program he created, Lamat—“star” in Mayan—has been remarkably successful at increasing the number of historically marginalized students who earn Ph.D.s in astrophysics.
Alumna Kathryn Johnston, who earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, was cited for her “groundbreaking studies in galactic dynamics revealing the history of the Milky Way’s assembly and the nature of the dark matter halo in which it is embedded,” and for outstanding mentorship and service to the community. She has been a professor at Columbia University since 2006.
The full list of 2026 AAS fellows was announced on January 8, and all the recipients of this year’s AAS awards and prizes are named in the society’s announcement.