Dr Ian Parry, of the University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, has been awarded the 2017 Jackson-Gwilt Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society
Dr Ian Parry became acutely aware of the scientific need for large samples of galaxy spectra whilst doing his PhD in the 1980's on the faint object spectrograph of the Isaac Newton Telescope. He thought hard about how to build an automated fibre positioner that had more fibres and cost less than previous instruments, and he invented 'Autofib' – a robotic pick-and-place system.
He built an inexpensive lab demonstrator and described it in a chapter in his thesis. The Anglo-Australian Observatory then funded a full instrument and Autofib was born. It was a very popular instrument on the Anglo-Australian Telescope for many years, producing a large amount of excellent science, including the discovery of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy.
The Autofib idea then spread to a dozen observatories around the world where the instruments have been highly successful. Very few astronomical instrumentalists can claim to have invented a whole new class of astronomical instruments. Autofib was a truly 'enabling technology' and 30 years on, its value still remains very high.