Honorary Professor: Alan Watson

Alan Watson has been made an Honorary Professor.

Watson is Professor of Physics at the University of Leeds.

He was educated at Edinburgh, completing a first-class honours degree in Physics (1960) and a PhD in 1964.

He was an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Natural Philosophy (Physics) from 1962-64.

Professor Watson then moved to a lectureship at the University of Leeds in 1964, where he began studying high-energy cosmic rays.

He pursued this topic at the Haverah Park array near Leeds, at the South Pole, and currently in Argentina.

Professor Watson became a reader in 1976, and was awarded a Personal Chair in 1984.

Since 2003 he has been an emeritus and research professor.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2000 and is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Professor Watson received an honorary doctorate from the University of Santiago de Compostela in May 2009.

He was the joint founder of the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, the largest cosmic-ray facility ever built.

Professor Watson is married with two children and is a life member of Crail Golfing Society.