The Janssen Medal is an astrophysics award presented by the French Academy of Sciences to those who have made advances in this area of science. The award was founded in 1886, though the first medal was not awarded until a year later. The commission formed to decide on the first recipient of the medal selected the German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff for his work on the science of spectroscopy. However, Kirchhoff died aged 63 on 17 October 1887, a few months before the award would have been announced. Rather than choosing a new recipient for the award, the commission announced at the academy's session of 26 December 1887 that the inaugural medal would be placed on his grave, in "supreme honour of the memory of this great scholar of Heidelberg". The award had been intended to be biennial, but was awarded in 1888 and again in 1889. A statement in the 1889 volume of Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences clarified that the award would be presented annually for the first seven years, and then biennially from 1894 onwards. This award is distinct from the Prix Jules Janssen (created in 1897), an annual award presented by the French Astronomical Society. Both awards are named for the French astronomer Pierre Janssen (1824–1907) (better known as Jules Janssen). Janssen founded the academy award, and was a member of the inaugural commission.
Laureates 1887 – Gustav Kirchhoff (posthumously) 1888 – William Huggins 1889 – Norman Lockyer 1890 – Charles Augustus Young 1891 – Georges Rayet 1892 – Pietro Tacchini 1893 – Samuel Pierpont Langley 1894 – George Ellery Hale 1896 – Henri Deslandres 1898 – Aristarkh Belopolsky 1900 – Edward Emerson Barnard 1902 – Aymar de la Baume Pluvinel 1904 – Aleksey Pavlovitch Hansky 1905 – Gaston Millochau (silver-gilt award) 1906 – Annibale Ricco 1908 – Pierre Puiseux 1910 – William Wallace Campbell 1912 – Alfred Perot 1914 – René Jarry-Desloges 1916 – Charles Fabry 1918 – Stanislas Chevalier 1920 – William Coblentz 1922 – Carl Størmer 1924 – George Willis Ritchey 1926 – Francisco Miranda da Costa Lobo 1928 – William Hammond Wright 1930 – Bernard Ferdinand Lyot 1932 – Alexandre Dauvillier 1934 – Walter Sydney Adams 1936 – Henry Norris Russell 1938 – Bertil Lindblad 1940 – Harlow Shapley 1943 – Lucien Henri d'Azambuja 1944 – Jean Rösch 1946 – Jan Hendrik Oort 1949 – Daniel Chalonge 1952 – André Couder 1955 – Otto Struve 1958 – André Lallemand 1961 – Pol Swings 1964 – Jean-François Denisse 1967 – Bengt Strömgren 1970 – Gérard Wlérick 1973 – Lucienne Devan (silver-gilt award) 1976 – Paul Ledoux 1979 – Jean Delhaye 1982 – Georges Michaud 1985 – Pierre Lacroute 1988 – Lodewijk Woltjer. 1990 – Pierre Charvin 1992 – Henk C. Van de Hulst 1994 – Serge Koutchmy 1999 – Jean-Marie Mariotti 2003 – Gilbert Vedrenne 2007 – Bernard Fort 2011 – Francois Mignard 2019 – Eric Hosy The list above is complete up to 2019.
See also List of astronomy awards
References
External links (in French) Les Prix Thematiques en Sciences de l'Univers, includes a description of the Janssen Medal (French Academy of Sciences) (in French) Article and photograph on the presentation of the 2007 award to Bernard Fort Archived 25 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine (Paris Institute of Astrophysics)