A leading Cambridge University astronomer has received a prestigious award - described by TIME magazine as the "next Nobel Prize" - for his research on Quasars in the Centres of Galaxies.

Donald Lynden-Bell, Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Astronomy, will share the Kavli Prize for Astrophysics with a fellow-astronomer Professor Maarten Schmidt, from the California Institute of Technology.

Professor Lynden-Bell's award was made in recognition of his pioneering research into what makes the centre of some distant galaxies shine. He argued that the varying light observed in those galaxies is caused by material spiralling down towards Black Holes a hundred million times more massive than the Sun. As the gravity of the Black Hole pulls the material inwards it rotates faster and faster and gets so hot that it shines.

The theory was very difficult to verify when Professor Lynden-Bell first proposed it in 1969. Many of his predictions however, have since been observationally confirmed thanks to the development of more advanced telescopes.

Professor Lynden-Bell is well known for his study of the motion and formation of galaxies and stars. He was a student of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Cambridge and later a junior Lecturer at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. After that he moved at the Royal Greenwich Observatory at Herstmonceux Castle under the Astronomer Royal, Sir Richard Woolley. It was there that he conducted his prize-winning work.

In 1972 he returned to Cambridge as Professor of Astrophysics and the first Director of the University's Institute of Astronomy, where he still teaches. He has been President of the Royal Astronomical Society and a member of the "Seven Samurai", a group of seven Astronomers who investigated the motion of nearby galaxies.

This is the first year in which the Kavli Prize has been awarded. Prizes are given in three categories: astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience and each is worth $1,000,000 (£500K).

The prizes are awarded by the Kavli Foundation which is dedicated to the advancement of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. Its benefactor, Fred Kavli, is a Norwegian-American businessman who founded Kavlico - the largest supplier of sensors for aeronautic, automotive and industrial applications. The winners are chosen by three committees, each comprising a panel of distinguished scientists. The recommendations are then confirmed by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

"Donald Lynden-Bell and Maarten Schmidt are worthy winners of this prestigious award which recognises their seminal contributions to our understanding of quasars. We offer them our warmest congratulations."

"We are pleased that this recognition coincides with the establishment this year of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology in Cambridge" Professor George Efstathiou, Director of the Institute of Astronomy and the Kavli Institute for Cosmology, said.

For more information about the award and to stream the award ceremony please access the links top right of this page.

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