Submitted by Pooja Pandey on Mon, 06/06/2022 - 16:32
We are sad to learn the death of Emeritus Professor Richard Hills FRS on 5th of June, after a period of ill health.
Dr. Richard Hills had a remarkable career as a world leading expert on millimetre and submillimetre astronomy, both astronomically and technically. His technical expertise was unparalleled and he performed outstandingly in his roles as project scientist for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii and then project scientist in Chile for the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) on the high altitude Atacama Desert. Both projects have been outstanding successes. For his major contributions to the JCMT project, he was awarded the Jackson-Gwilt Medal and Gift of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1989. He was elected Professor of Radio Astronomy in the Department in 1990 and was Deputy Head of Department between 1999 and 2003. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society for his many astronomical and technical achievements in 2014.
Richard will be sorely missed by the department as a brilliant, helpful and friendly colleague. We pass on our deepest condolences to his family during this sad time.