Alis Deason

Alis Jones Deason is a British astrophysicist whose research concerns the stellar archaeology of the Milky Way and the structure of its galactic halo. She is a professor at Durham University in its Institute for Computational Cosmology, and a research professor in Durham's Department of Physics.

Education and career

Deason is originally from Fishguard, in western Wales. She read astrophysics as an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge from 2005 to 2009, and then continued at Cambridge for a 2012 Ph.D. Her dissertation, The stellar and dark matter haloes of local galaxies, was jointly supervised by Vasily Belokurov and N. Wyn Evans.

She became a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz from 2012 to 2015, supported by a Hubble Fellowship. Following this, she continued her research as a Porat Fellow at Stanford University from 2015 to 2016, and then as a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Durham University from 2016 until 2025.

Research

Deason's advisor Vasily Belokurov, describing the research for which he received the 2026 Kavli Prize, credits Deason's work as a beginning graduate student for the observation that the galactic halo is more irregular than predicted, providing evidence that it had been formed through the accretion of halos from smaller satellite galaxies. Deason's later research included simulation of this accretion process, and determined that the remaining satellite galaxies include a subpopulation that were among the first generation of galaxies to be formed.

She has used the orbital velocities of halo stars to map the outer boundaries of dark matter in the halo. She was also part of a study that reduced the likelihood of a merge between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy, previously predicted to occur in approximately 5 billion years, because of increased uncertainty in the combined motion of the two galaxies.

Recognition

Deason was a 2018 recipient of the Philip Leverhulme Prize. A primary school science engagement programme based on connections between football (soccer) and physics that she founded and led, called Stargoal, won a 2024 Odgen Trust Outreach Award in the Partnering with Schools category.

References

  1. ↑ "Professor Alis Deason", Staff profiles, Durham University, retrieved 2026-10-21
  2. 1 2 Prof. Alis Deason: Home, retrieved 2026-10-21
  3. ↑ "Alis Jones Deason", Astrogen, American Astronomical Society, retrieved 2026-10-21
  4. ↑ Belokurov, Vasily, "Gaia is my demanding muse", Kavli Prize, retrieved 2026-10-21
  5. ↑ Kohler, Susanna (20 May 2016), "Building Halos by Digesting Satellites", AAS Nova, American Astronomical Society, retrieved 2026-10-21
  6. ↑ "Astronomers identify some of the oldest galaxies in the universe", Science Daily, 17 August 2018, retrieved 2026-10-21
  7. ↑ Starr, Michelle (24 March 2020), "Astronomers Think They Just Found The Edge of The Milky Way Galaxy", Science Alert, retrieved 2026-10-21
  8. ↑ Todd, Iain (8 October 2025), "It turns out our Galaxy might not be doomed after all. We asked a scientist to explain why", BBC Sky at Night Magazine, retrieved 2026-10-21
  9. ↑ Philip Leverhulme Prizes 2018, Leverhulme Trust, retrieved 2026-10-21
  10. ↑ Reach for the stars – Physics engagement programme recognised with top outreach award, Durham University, 26 September 2024, retrieved 2026-10-21