IU Alumna Roberta Humphreys (B.A. in Astronomy, 1965) has been awarded the 2024 Herschel Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society for her discovery of the empirical upper luminosity boundary for massive stars, known as the Humphreys-Davidson Limit. Her work with Davidson confirmed the importance of mass loss in the evolution of massive stars. The Herschal Medal is awarded for investigations of outstanding merit in observational astrophysics.
Following graduation from IU, Humphreys earned a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. She has enjoyed a distinguished career at the University of Minnesota, where she is a Distinguished Professor in the College of Science and Engineering. She also served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the Institute of Technology. Professor Humphreys is a Fellow of American Astronomical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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