David Malin

Born in England, Malin has been involved in scientific imaging his entire working life. He joined the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) as its Photographic Scientist in 1975 and has since conquered the depths of cosmos with stunning photography through the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). He is also an Adjunct Professor of Scientific Photography at RMIT University in Melbourne. As part of his work at AAO, Malin developed hypersensitization methods for the photographic materials used in astronomy, greatly increasing their speed. His development of methods for detecting faint information on astronomical plates has also garnered him international acclaim. These novel image enhancement techniques quickly led to the discovery of two new types of galaxies, and in 1987 he discovered an extremely faint 'proto-galaxy' now known as Malin-1. These new galaxies are among the faintest objects ever detected by a ground-based telescope, and their discovery represented a significant advance in photographic astronomy and a major contribution to galaxy research. The photographic techniques Malin developed to discover them are are now known as 'Malinisation'. Malin was a pioneer in making true-color astronomical photographs from black and white plates taken in three separate colors. His photographs have been widely published and have been on the covers of hundreds of books and magazines including LIFE and National Geographic. His work also graces a series of Australian postage stamps. International solo art exhibitions of his work have been held in Australia, Britain, China, France, Italy, India and the USA. Malin has published more than 120 scientific papers, a similar number of popular articles on astronomy and photography, and seven books. He is also a popular lecturer. He has received two honorary doctorate degrees from Australian universities for his contributions to photographic science and astronomy. International awards bestowed on David Malin include: Henri Chretien Award of the American Astronomical Society, 1985. Jackson-Gwilt Medal and Prize of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1985. Rodman Medal of the Royal Photographic Society, 1990. Progress Medal of the Photographic Society of America, 1993. Commonwealth Medal of the Australian Photographic Society, 1993 University of NSW Press/Eureka Science Book Prize (for "A View of the Universe"), 1994. Elected Fellow of the International Academy of Astronautics, 1998 Lennart Nilsson Prize, 2000 Hubble Award of the Advance Imaging Conference, 2006