Jonathan Tennyson (physicist)
Charles Jonathan Penrose Tennyson is a British physicist. He is the Massey Professor of Physics and Head of department at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London. Chief Scientist Quantemol Ltd and chair, Blue Skies Space Ltd.
Education
He was educated at Bootham School, York. He continued his studies at King's College, Cambridge and the University of Sussex.Research and career
Tennyson is an author of over 700 scientific papers focusing on applications of molecular spectroscopy to problems in astrophysics, atmospheric science, plasma physics and other fields. He has written a number of popular science articles. He wrote the undergraduate textbook Astronomical Spectroscopy: An Introduction to the Atomic and Molecular Physics of Astronomical Spectra. Leader of the ExoMol project.Awards and honours
He received the 2007 Ellis R. Lippincott Award from The Optical Society and was also elected a Fellow of the Society. Tennyson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2009.Tennyson was awarded the 2025 Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal for his pioneering work advancing our understanding of exoplanets.