Preston student who made ‘Big Ring’ space discovery up for award

A student from the University of Central Lancashire has been shortlisted for a prestigious national award.

Alexia Lopez, a PhD student, made a discovery in January this year which challenges our understanding of the universe.

She has been shortlisted for the Time Higher Education Awards for her cosmological discoveries over the last few years.

Alexia is up against five other universities in the Research Project of the Year: STEM category.

She said: “I am completely taken by surprise.

“It is truly an honour to be shortlisted for this award and I am delighted that the Giant Arc and the Big Ring have drawn such an interest, both from the public and academic community.”

Her discovery of an ultra-large-scale structure in the universe, The Giant Arc, in 2021, followed by the Big Ring in the Sky in 2024, were so significant that they challenged fundamental assumptions in the field of cosmology.

Alexia presented both discoveries at meetings of the American Astronomical Society and was invited by them to present at press conferences.

An artistic impression of what the Big Ring (shown in blue) and Giant Arc (shown in red) would look like in the sky. Background image credit: Stellarium.

The Big Ring in the Sky research has a reach of over one billion people around the world, with more than 1,000 different media outlets running the story.

Due to the impact of Alexia’s work, she was invited to speak at the Royal Society meeting: Challenging the Standard Cosmological Model, which is unheard of for a PhD student to do. She joined world-leading cosmologists and a Nobel prize winner.

Alexia added: “It’s a privilege to work towards answering the questions: what does our Universe look like and how did our Universe form? Studying the Universe on the largest scales imaginable is exhilarating; finding the Giant Arc and Big Ring structures are reminders that we still do not have all the answers about our Universe, and that there is so much left to learn!

“To have this work recognised by the prestigious THE awards is an honour, and I am just so grateful to have even come this far in being shortlisted.”

Dubbed, ‘the Oscars of higher education,’ this year’s awards has received a record-breaking number of entries.

Around 120 finalists from more than 70 institutions have been shortlisted.

Winners will be announced in Birmingham on 28 November, which also coincides with the Time Higher Education Awards’ 20th anniversary.

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