Early Career Researcher 2025
Imad Ahmed (Faculty of Divinity, School of Arts and Humanities)
The Vice-Chancellor's Awards
for Research Impact and Engagement
About the researcher
Imad Ahmed is a PhD student in the Faculty of Divinity and his research focuses on the topic of the Islamic lunar calendar. In the UK, there is no local Islamic calendar. Due to a lack of resources and expertise, the Muslim community has never developed trained lunar observation groups capable of producing a national calendar. Instead, UK mosques outsource their calendar to various other countries.
However, because each country sees the crescent on different days, this results in UK Muslims celebrating Ramadan and Eid across different dates. This produces huge annual frictions, family divisions, and even cases of imams being sacked due to these debates.
Imad's PhD research examines these tensions through an ethnographic lens, while his public engagement work at the Royal Observatory Greenwich and through the Moonsighters Academy provides practical astronomy training designed to empower communities to develop local capability and eventually manage their own calendar.
The Vice-Chancellor's Awards
for Research Impact and Engagement
About the researcher
Imad Ahmed is a PhD student in the Faculty of Divinity and his research focuses on the topic of the Islamic lunar calendar. In the UK, there is no local Islamic calendar. Due to a lack of resources and expertise, the Muslim community has never developed trained lunar observation groups capable of producing a national calendar. Instead, UK mosques outsource their calendar to various other countries.
However, because each country sees the crescent on different days, this results in UK Muslims celebrating Ramadan and Eid across different dates. This produces huge annual frictions, family divisions, and even cases of imams being sacked due to these debates.
Imad's PhD research examines these tensions through an ethnographic lens, while his public engagement work at the Royal Observatory Greenwich and through the Moonsighters Academy provides practical astronomy training designed to empower communities to develop local capability and eventually manage their own calendar.
Imad’s work exemplifies excellence in public engagement: he bridges science and culture, fosters inclusivity,
and inspires curiosity in audiences who might otherwise feel disconnected from astronomy.
Tania de Sales Marques
Astronomer, Royal Observatory Greenwich
A session with the New Crescent Society. Credit: Sam Frost
A session with the New Crescent Society. Credit: Sam Frost
What is the research?
Bring the Moon Back Home
In the UK there is no nationally produced Islamic lunar calendar. Due to limited local resources and expertise, most mosques outsource calendrical decisions to overseas authorities. Because lunar visibility varies by location, this leads to Ramadan and Eid being observed on different dates each year, generating significant community tension, family division, and institutional conflict. This PhD research examines these debates through an ethnographic lens, alongside sustained public engagement work that focuses on building local lunar observation and calendrical capacity.
Through partnerships with the Royal Observatory Greenwich and grassroots Muslim astronomy groups, the project delivers practical, culturally relevant astronomy training designed to empower communities to manage their own calendars. It also addresses low science capital within British Muslim communities by reconnecting audiences with Islamic contributions to the history of astronomy and creating accessible pathways into science.
The Astronomy and Islam programme at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, co-curated as part of this work, has become the Observatory’s best-selling engagement series, reaching large public audiences through planetarium shows, talks, and livestreams.
Across the UK, more than 3,000 people have been trained in observational astronomy, crescent visibility, and lunar calendar literacy through mosques, community centres, and national workshops. Building on this foundation, a UKRI STFC-funded Moonsighters Academy will establish a national network of trained community astronomy leaders in collaboration with Cambridge University's Faculty of Divinity, Interfaith Programme, Institute of Astronomy, and Leeds University’s School of Physics and Astronomy.
The project has also expanded access to major heritage and academic institutions, generated national media coverage, and embedded community-led knowledge production at the heart of both the research and its public engagement outcomes.
His leadership and vision have been instrumental in making the Astronomy and Islam programme a model of meaningful,
community-driven engagement. Imad’s passion for his work is commendable, and it has inspired me over the years.
Tania de Sales Marques
Astronomer, Royal Observatory Greenwich
