Vasily Belokurov is Professor of Astronomy at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge. He graduated from Moscow State University, Relativistic Astrophysics Department, Sternberg Astronomical Institute, and did his DPhil at the University of Oxford, in the group of Professor Wyn Evans.

During her PhD at the University of Cambridge, Professor Burnell was involved in the discovery of pulsars, opening up a new branch of astrophysics - work that was recognised by the award of a Nobel Prize to her supervisor. While working part-time to raise a family she managed the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii as a facility for astronomers in British, Canadian and Dutch universities. She has used telescopes flown on high-altitude balloons, launched on rockets and carried on satellites, and built a radio telescope that was firmly grounded in Cambridgeshire. Jocelyn has been awarded the Oppenheimer prize, the Michelson medal, the Tinsley prize and the Magellanic Premium. The UK’s Royal Astronomical Society has also presented her with the Herschel Medal. The public appreciation and understanding of science have always been important to her. In 1999 she toured Australia giving the Women in Physics Lecture and her appointment to the Open University doubled the number of female professors of physics in the UK. Jocelyn ‘retired’ as Dean of Science at the University of Bath in 2004 and moved to a Visiting Professorship at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellowship at Mansfield College.

Professor Gerard Gilmore is Professor of Experimental Philosophy, in the Institute of Astronomy, at the University of Cambridge. His research has centred on studying stars in the Galaxy to understand its structure and evolutionary history. Watch Prof Gilmore's 'Larmor Lecture'.

Professor Nikku Madhusudhan is Professor of Astrophysics and Exoplanetary Science at the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge. His research interests include understanding the atmospheres, interiors, formation conditions and habitability of exoplanets (planets that orbit other stars). Nikku is widely known for pioneering the inverse techniques used to measure the atmospheric properties of exoplanets, seen using a wide array of observational facilities in space and on Earth. He has received various awards for his work in exoplanetary science, including the 2019 MERAC Prize in Theoretical Astrophysics from the European Astronomical Society, and the 2019 Pilkington Prize for excellence in teaching at the University of Cambridge.

Gudrun joined the Institute of Astronomy in 2012, managing a succession of large international consortia-led projects centring on research infrastructures, instrumentation, trans-national access, and developing strategic advice to the EC to support EC planning. She advises members of the IoA and of the international community on EC funding strategies, proposal writing and contractual matters, and collaborates with astronomers on the history and philosophy of science, e.g. The 1919 eclipse results that verified general relativity and their later detractors: a story re-told | Notes and Records: the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science (royalsocietypublishing.org)

Professor Peiris' research aims to test fundamental physics using large cosmological datasets, including the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and galaxy surveys, using an interdisciplinary approach combining observations, theoretical physics, and advanced statistical and machine learning methods. Hiranya is increasingly engaged in the interface between cosmology and galaxy evolution, and in gravitational wave astrophysics. She also enjoy thinking about stellar dynamics and the structure of the Milky Way. More broadly beyond astrophysics, her research involves interdisciplinary collaborations at the interface of cosmology with particle physics and condensed matter physics.

Hiranya is the Principal Investigator of the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant project CosmicExplorer. She is theory lead in the Quantum Simulators for Fundamental Physics (QSimFP) Consortium, funded by UKRI’s Quantum Technologies for Fundamental Physics programme. She is a founding member of ALPHA, an international collaboration working to deploy a plasma haloscope to detect the QCD axion, a prime dark matter candidate. She is part of several international research projects on multimessenger astrophysics and cosmology with gravitational wave sources and their electromagnetic counterparts.