Martin Aubé receives the Galileo Prize from the International Dark-Sky Association

Our colleague Martin Aubé from Cégep de Sherbrooke, associate professor at Bishop’s University and Université de Sherbrooke and member of the CRAQ, is the 2018 recipient of the Galileo Prize of the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). This prize aims to recognize his research contribution and his remarkable achievements.

Martin Aubé is a world leader in the quantification and modeling of light pollution. He has collaborated with manufacturers to develop new light-emitting diodes, he has advised observatories and cities on lighting and made public appearances, including several media interviews on light pollution.

Thanks to his many conferences and avant-garde articles on light pollution, Martin Aubé has made astronomers, biologists and town planners aware of its effects. His quantitative melatonin suppression index is used not only by astronomers and town planners, but also by biologists around the world. His efforts with elected municipal officials, including Montreal and Sherbrooke, have led to the emergence of an awareness of light pollution and the implementation of concrete means to protect our starry sky.

It is with great pride that the CRAQ congratulates Martin Aubé for this prestigious honor.

About the Galileo Award

The Galileo Award is attributed “in recognition of outstanding achievements in research or academic work on light pollution over a multiple year period.” The Galileo Award was established by IDA Europe in 2003 to acknowledge outstanding achievements in combating light pollution in Europe and was traditionally presented at the European Symposium for the Protection of the Night Sky. In 2017, the restriction of the award to Europe was lifted to better reflect IDA’s international mission, and the award citation was changed to reflect the academic contributions of many of the previous winners while avoiding overlap with other categories of IDA awards.

Source:
Robert Lamontagne
Media relation and public outreach
Centre de recherche en astrophysique du Québec
Phone : (438) 495-3482
lamont@astro.umontreal.ca