A Nobel prizewinning astrophysicist has joined growing calls to reverse funding cuts likely to cause “long-term damage to the standing of UK science”, claiming the loss of postdoctoral researchers will threaten the country’s central role in several major international projects examining exoplanets.
Backing an open letter signed by more than 100 UK planetary scientists, Swiss astronomer Didier Queloz endorsed a call to consider alternative options to the 30 per cent cuts proposed for the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) particle physics, astronomy and nuclear physics (PPAN) programme.
Queloz, who is Jacksonian professor of natural philosophy at the University of Cambridge, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2019 for his discovery in 1995, with Michel Mayor, of the first “exoplanet” orbiting a Sun-like star outside the solar system.
Describing the advances by the UK science community in this area, the open letter states: “The UK exoplanet community has leading roles in virtually all major international exoplanet projects and cuts to PPAN funding threaten the vitality of the exoplanet community as well as its leadership on the world stage.”
“Cuts of this magnitude will do immense damage to PPAN research,” it continues, stating that “given that some of the most exciting advances in exoplanet science are likely to happen within the next couple of decades, if these cuts do go ahead it will risk the UK dropping out of its leadership position and losing the chance to make major contributions to one of the most exciting scientific advances of this generation.”
