![\"Lewis_Thomas_HERO\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Lewis_Thomas_HERO_3226-1000-x-666-px.png\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Chris Impey<\/p>\n
For decades, Chris Impey has guided readers across the expanding frontier of the universe. From quasars and black holes to the search for planets beyond our solar system, his books translate the technical achievements of modern astronomy into clear narratives that connect the cosmic and the human.<\/p>\n
Impey, Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona\u2019s Steward Observatory, will receive the Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science at The Rockefeller University on March 9, 2026. The annual international award recognizes scientists whose books bring clarity and literary depth to complex ideas while engaging a broad public audience.<\/p>\n
Established in 1993 by Rockefeller\u2019s Board of Trustees, the prize honors the \u201cscientist as poet.\u201d It is named for its first recipient, physician and essayist Lewis Thomas, widely regarded as one of the finest science writers of the 20th century and celebrated for bridging the worlds of science and literature.<\/p>\n
A Legacy of Astrobiology<\/p>\n
Jesse H. Ausubel, chair of the selection committee, says the choice of Impey resonates with the University\u2019s history\u2014particularly the legacy of Joshua Lederberg, the Nobel Prize\u2013winning molecular biologist who served as Rockefeller\u2019s president from 1978 to 1990 and helped pioneer the field of exobiology.<\/p>\n
\u201cLederberg recognized the importance of exobiology at the dawn of the space age,\u201d Ausubel says. \u201cHe wrote prescient papers in Science and Nature and became an early advisor to NASA.\u201d<\/p>\n
That intellectual lineage flows naturally into Impey\u2019s work. As an astronomer, Ausubel says, \u201cImpey has taken on some of the most fundamental questions in science\u2014What is life? How did it begin? Does it exist elsewhere in the universe?\u201d Questions, he adds, that belong to poetry and philosophy as much as to biology or astronomy.<\/p>\n
Impey has pursued those questions through decades of observational research. Throughout his career, he has developed innovative methods to observe and measure matter and energy, advancing understanding of quasars\u2014extremely distant objects powered by supermassive black holes\u2014and the intergalactic medium, the vast expanse between galaxies. He has refined gravitational lensing techniques and used instruments at ground-based observatories and the Hubble Space Telescope to probe these mysteries.<\/p>\n
At the same time, he has written 10 popular science books exploring topics from the origins of the universe and the evolution of galaxies to black holes and the search for extraterrestrial life. Four of those books examine humanity\u2019s effort to determine whether life exists beyond Earth, including his 2023 work, Worlds Without End: Exoplanets, Habitability, and the Future of Humanity.<\/a><\/p>\n In Worlds Without End, Impey surveys discoveries that have revealed thousands of planets beyond our solar system and explains how astronomers evaluate their potential to support life. Weaving scientific insight with cultural references\u2014from Shakespeare to\u00a0Avatar\u2014he captures humanity\u2019s fascination with habitable worlds. He places those discoveries in the context of Earth\u2019s environmental challenges, reminding readers that scientific curiosity must coexist with planetary stewardship. \u201cThere is no planet B,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Impey spent part of his childhood between the U.S. East Coast and London. He graduated with highest honors in physics from Imperial College London in 1977 and earned a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Edinburgh four years later. After postdoctoral positions at the University of Hawai\u2018i and the California Institute of Technology, he joined the University of Arizona\u2019s Steward Observatory, where he is now a University Distinguished Professor.<\/p>\n He has earned wide recognition for his dedication to teaching and public engagement. Impey has been honored as an NSF Distinguished Teaching Scholar, elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and became the first astronomer to be named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor.<\/p>\n Recent recipients of the Lewis Thomas Prize include neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene (2025), theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli (2024), forestry researcher Suzanne Simard (2023), and evolutionary biologist Richard Prum (2021). In 2002, the prize was awarded to neurologist and writer Oliver Sacks, celebrated for his humane explorations of the brain and human experience in books such as Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.<\/p>\n