Submitted by Matthew Bothwell on Tue, 16/06/2026 - 15:28
It is with great sadness that the Institute of Astronomy announces the death of Professor Paul Hewett.
Paul joined the Institute of Astronomy in 1982, following his doctoral thesis at the University of Edinburgh, and remained at the IoA for the entirety of his career. He was appointed Professor of Observational Cosmology and Astrophysics in 2007 and served at various points as Assistant Director of Research, Deputy Director, and Director of the Institute.
His research career was shaped by the transformative instrumentation being developed at Cambridge during the 1980s. The Automated Plate Measuring (APM) machine made it possible, for the first time, to extract useful science from photographic survey plates at scale. Paul was among the earliest astronomers to exploit this capability for extragalactic work, contributing to multi-object spectroscopic programmes throughout the 1980s.
An early highlight was the Large Bright Quasar Survey (LBQS), developed with collaborators including Craig Foltz and Frederic Chaffee. APM scans of UK Schmidt Telescope plates provided candidate lists, with spectroscopic follow-up at the Multiple Mirror Telescope providing a final catalogue of over a thousand quasars across nearly 450 square degrees — the first large, homogeneous, well-characterised sample of optically selected quasars. Paul's work on this pioneering survey laid the groundwork for a prolific career working on large astronomical datasets (including SDSS), quasar behaviour and populations, and galaxy evolution at high redshift.
Beyond his research, Paul was deeply invested in the welfare and development of the IoA's graduate students. Over much of the last three decades he looked after the IoA's PhD research programme. Generations of students passing through the IoA can attest to Paul's outstanding qualities as a mentor, both pastoral and academic. He brought these same qualities to bear in his interactions with his colleagues, both academics and support staff, and was a highly valued friend and sounding board for many early career researchers.
Paul was a colleague of exceptional ability and generosity, who brought compassion, sanity, and a twinkling sense of humour into the workplace. He will be greatly missed.