The International Dark-Sky Association has announced the 2021 IDA award recipients (click here to read more in-depth about the winners). Each year, the IDA recognizes and celebrates the incredible achievements of individuals and groups who are committed to our mission to preserve the night. As leaders in their communities, the awardees play a crucial role in strengthening the global dark sky movement and empowering others to join the fight against light pollution.
Crawford Hunter Lifetime Achievement Award
This award represents the highest honor that IDA bestows upon individuals who, in the course of their lifetime, have contributed an extraordinary effort to light pollution abatement.
Jaime Zamorano
Spain
Included in his many accomplishments, Jaime is a driving force of light pollution research in Europe with a clear focus on the promotion of dark skies and the use of community science (such as STARS4ALL and ACTION project) to develop activities around dark skies. He is a professional astronomer and astrophysics professor at the Department of Astrophysics and Atmospheric Science at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). Together with colleagues at UCM, Jaime coordinated the actions towards the creation of the UCM Observatory. Its main research activities are now related to the astronomical quality of the night sky. Additionally, he leads a group working on this topic at UCM, and he is the coordinator of the Spanish Light Pollution Research Network (REECL). Also, Jamie led the team that designed the TESS-W (Telescope Encoder and Sky Sensor) to monitor sky brightness. The goal was to create a device that may be replicated at low cost by others with science quality measurements. At the same time, Jamie kept in mind the need for the light pollution community to have open hardware designs (the TESS photometer design is available under a Creative Commons license) and, more importantly, to have a large set of open data available for everybody with measurements all around the world.
Since its foundation in 2021, Jamie has also been the coordinator of the Laboratory for Scientific Advanced Instrumentation (Laboratorio de Instrumentación Científica Avanzada, LICA). This laboratory belongs to the UCM research laboratories network and is being used by many researchers in the light pollution field to characterize their instruments. For example, nearly every participant of the international LoNNe Intercomparison Campaign provided some instrument or filter to be characterized in the LICA lab.
Jamie is often referred to as a team builder. He frequently collaborates with students and colleagues on projects such as the calibration of the International Space Station (ISS) images and the ‘Cities at Night’ Project in partnership with Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel, design of COELOFO (a multi-channel photometer), and the promotion of a multitude of community science programs among many other projects. Additionally, thus far in his career, Jamie has published numerous papers on light pollution.
The Dr. Arthur Hoag and William T. Robinson Award
This award is given to an individual who has been outstanding in educating governmental organizations, businesses, and the public about the merits of outdoor lighting control ordinances.
Robert Dick
Canada
Galileo Award
This award is given in recognition of outstanding achievements in research or academic work on light pollution over a multiple-year period.
Salvador Xurxo Bará Viñas
Spain
Bob Gent Community Leadership Award
This award is given to an IDA Chapter or Chapter member who has demonstrated outstanding achievement at the local level in combating light pollution and fostering support for IDA’s mission and programs.
Nobuaki Ochi
Japan
Lighting Design and Technical Innovation Award
This award is given to individuals, organizations, or businesses that – through progressive design, construction, technological innovation, and entrepreneurship – support IDA and its mission to preserve night skies by promoting quality outdoor nighttime lighting.
Dana Stefanoff / Crossroads LED
USA
Dark Sky Defender Award
This award is given to individuals and organizations in recognition of their efforts to promote and advance the mission and programs of IDA to preserve night skies on each of the six inhabited continents.
Noorali Jiwaji
Tanzania
Emma Zulaiha Binti Zulkifli
Malaysia
Gareth Davies
New Zealand
Jurji Stare
Slovenia
Jane Slade
USA
Alejandro Sommer
Argentina
Rising Star Award
This award honors students of any grade level who demonstrate an enthusiasm for and commitment to dark sky conservation or research into natural darkness and light pollution.
Emma Schmidt
USA
Maria Scricco
USA
Antonio Schmuch and Moritz Wolf
Germany
Abhi Gudipati
USA
Nocturnal Habitat Protection Award
The Nocturnal Habitat Protection Award recognizes individuals or entities whose decisive actions have been instrumental to the conservation of substantial nocturnal habitat for terrestrial and/or aquatic wildlife species on public or private land and water resources.
Department of Agriculture, Water, and Environment (Mark Carey, Amelia Cook, Jessica Armstrong, Geoff Richardson, Isabelle Straughair, Rebecca Haughey, Kevin Yang, Karen Arthur, Jessica Barradough, Rebekah Collins, Clayton Woods, Belinda Harding, Narelle Montgomery, Fiona Bartlett, Natan Perring)
Australia
Dark Sky Place of the Year Award
This award is given in recognition of a recent exceptional achievement to an International Dark Sky Place.
Mont-Mégantic International Dark Sky Reserve
Canada
Director’s Discretionary Award
This award is given at the discretion of the Executive Director to an individual, group, or other entity who have done exceptional work to protect the night through advancing lighting policy, technology, or bringing awareness to the dark sky movement.
Andrew Griffith MP and Chris Cook/All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dark Skies
UK
Congratulations to all 2021 IDA award recipients!