[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/images.euronews.com\/articles\/stories\/09\/95\/06\/53\/1200x675_cmsv2_90ebd894-f6ca-5e19-9455-e065a4d70bf0-9950653.jpg”]<\/p>\n
Cox was presented with the award at a private ceremony at the Royal Astronomical Society in London on 2 October, by co-founders of Starmus, Sir Brian May and astrophysicist Garik Israelian. STARMUS\u202fis a global platform for science, art, and human inspiration that brings together some of the most brilliant minds on the planet.The medal, established by Starmus with Stephen Hawking a decade ago, honours outstanding science communicators across disciplines and creative forms \u2013 from literature and broadcasting to music, film and art \u2013 who are helping bridge the gap between science and society, spark curiosity and make science accessible to all.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a great honour to receive the 2026 Stephen Hawking Medal from Starmus, and particularly poignant for me because I was there with Stephen when the Medal was first announced 10 years ago,\u201d Cox said at the ceremony.\u00a0\u201cAstronomy is the oldest science, and in today\u2019s fractured world I believe that striving to understand the Universe is more important than ever,\u201d Cox added.\u201cThe Stephen Hawking Medal was born from a shared belief that science should inspire people far beyond the scientific community,\u201d May said. He also emphasised this message was particularly important at a time when \u201ctruth, evidence, and critical thinking are increasingly challenged\u201d.\u00a0Stephen Hawking Medal recognises Cox\u2019s accessible science\u00a0Cox is one of Britain\u2019s best-known science communicators. He has presented television series including Universe and The Planets, written books such as The Quantum Universe and delivered lectures around the world. He currently serves as Professor of Particle Physics and Royal Society Professor for Public Engagement in Science at the University of Manchester.\u00a0His work attempts to enlighten the public on subjects ranging from the smallest building blocks of matter to the origins and eventual fate of the Universe \u2013 ideas that are not always easy to explain while keeping an audience engaged.\u00a0Alongside Cox, this year\u2019s medal winners are filmmaker Ridley Scott, the Artemis II crew, Nobel Laureate Geoffrey Hinton, and 17-year-old Valeria Corrales, who receives the Stephen Hawking Medal Junior. Christiana Figueres, a key figure in brokering the 2015 Paris climate agreement, will also be awarded the inaugural Jane Goodall Earth Medal.\u00a0Previous recipients of the Steven Hawking medal include broadcaster David Attenborough, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, marine biologist Sylvia Earle, filmmaker Christopher Nolan, composer Hans Zimmer and musician Brian Eno. The NASA communications office has also received the award.\u00a0The medal\u2019s design reflects the unique mix of science and culture at the heart of Starmus\u2019 vision. One side features a portrait of Hawking by Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, while the other depicts Leonov during his historic spacewalk, alongside an image of Brian May\u2019s \u2018Red Special\u2019 guitar associated with rock band Queen.\u00a0During the London ceremony, Cox, May and Israelian discussed astronomy, humanity, music, artificial intelligence and Hawking\u2019s enduring legacy. Cox was also presented with an OMEGA Speedmaster Moonwatch crafted in 18K Moonshine Gold.\u00a0\u00a0\u2018The Search for Truth\u2019 continues at the 8th Starmus Festival\u00a0The award will be celebrated as part of Starmus VIII Festival, which takes place on the Canary Islands from 17 to 22 October.\u00a0This year\u2019s festival, themed \u2018The Search for Truth\u2019, will bring scientists, astronauts, Nobel Prize winners, artists and musicians together across Tenerife and La Palma. The location is fitting for such a celebration, with both islands recognised for the quality of their night skies and astronomic facilities, the latter protected as a Starlight Reserve.\u00a0\u00a0Alongside lectures and discussions, the programme includes music, art, stargazing and a science camp, aiming to take the conversation beyond the lecture hall and inspire real-world curiosity.\u00a0Music from Andrea Bocelli, Rick Wakeman and Sarah Brightman will set the tone, alongside more than 40 speakers across the week, including Nobel laureates May-Britt Moser, Donna Strickland and Steven Chu, and astronauts Chris Hadfield, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen.\u00a0The festival will close in La Palma with a free public performance of Ilan Eshkeri\u2019s Space Station Earth. This live orchestral work is accompanied by footage from space, exploring how seeing Earth from above can reshape human perspective.\u00a0Ten years after Hawking helped launch the medal, Starmus is recognising Cox\u2019s embodiment of its original ambition: not only to explain what we know about the Universe, but to inspire us all to look up and wonder.\u00a0<\/div>\n
[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/2026\/10\/14\/brian-cox-awarded-2026-stephen-hawking-medal-for-science-communication”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/images.euronews.com\/articles\/stories\/09\/95\/06\/53\/1200x675_cmsv2_90ebd894-f6ca-5e19-9455-e065a4d70bf0-9950653.jpg”] Cox was presented with the award at a private ceremony at the Royal Astronomical Society in London on 2 October, by co-founders of Starmus, Sir Brian May and astrophysicist Garik Israelian. STARMUS\u202fis a global platform for science, art, and human inspiration that brings together some of the most brilliant minds on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[226,36],"class_list":["post-2198918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-crawlmanager","tag-euronews-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2198918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2198918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2198918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2198918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}