Crawford Hunter Lifetime Achievement Award

Jaime Zamorano

Oct 22, 2021

This award represents the highest honor that IDA bestows upon individuals who, in the course of their lifetime, have contributed an extraordinary effort to light pollution abatement.

Jaime Zamorano
Spain

Included in his many accomplishments, Jaime is a driving force of light pollution research in Europe with a clear focus on the promotion of dark skies and the use of community science (such as STARS4ALL and ACTION project) to develop activities around dark skies. He is a professional astronomer and astrophysics professor at the Department of Astrophysics and Atmospheric Science at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). Together with colleagues at UCM, Jaime coordinated the actions towards the creation of the UCM Observatory. Its main research activities are now related to the astronomical quality of the night sky. Additionally, he leads a group working on this topic at UCM, and he is the coordinator of the Spanish Light Pollution Research Network (REECL). Also, Jamie led the team that designed the TESS-W (Telescope Encoder and Sky Sensor) to monitor sky brightness. The goal was to create a device that may be replicated at low cost by others with science quality measurements. At the same time, Jamie kept in mind the need for the light pollution community to have open hardware designs (the TESS photometer design is available under a Creative Commons license) and, more importantly, to have a large set of open data available for everybody with measurements all around the world.

Since its foundation in 2021, Jamie has also been the coordinator of the Laboratory for Scientific Advanced Instrumentation (Laboratorio de Instrumentación Científica Avanzada, LICA). This laboratory belongs to the UCM research laboratories network and is being used by many researchers in the light pollution field to characterize their instruments. For example, nearly every participant of the international LoNNe Intercomparison Campaign provided some instrument or filter to be characterized in the LICA lab.

Jamie is often referred to as a team builder. He frequently collaborates with students and colleagues on projects such as the calibration of the International Space Station (ISS) images and the ‘Cities at Night’ Project in partnership with Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel, design of COELOFO (a multi-channel photometer), and the promotion of a multitude of community science programs among many other projects. Additionally, thus far in his career, Jamie has published numerous papers on light pollution.

Related Articles


Changing Scene

  • New Podcast Collaboration with Lighting Controls Association and NAILD

    March 24, 2023 The National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors (NAILD) and the Lighting Controls Association have announced a collaboration on a new podcast seeking to raise awareness and expertise in lighting controls. About the Podcast Produced every two weeks for audio listening on popular apps or watching on a dedicated YouTube channel, it is hosted by… Read More…

  • DLC Non-Energy Benefits

    Evaluating the Non-Energy Benefits of Advanced Networked Lighting Controls

    March 24, 2023 The Benefits As energy efficient LED technology has become mainstream, the quantifiable gains from controlling smaller lighting loads may appear to have diminished at first glance. The truth is, while direct energy savings from controls alone represents a smaller portion of savings compared to the savings from LEDs, the use of networked… Read More…


Design

  • Light at Night and the Inequality Gap: Progress and Challenges

    Light at Night and the Inequality Gap: Progress and Challenges

    March 9, 2023 In December 2021, the DLC hosted a webinar that explored issues related to “Bridging the Inequality Gap” in outdoor nighttime lighting. The conversation introduced research on how lighting contributes to discrimination and inequity in underrepresented communities, and generated heightened interest among attendees. To follow up on the research and work presented, the DLC sat… Read More…

  • LIT Design Awards Light Art Project Winner: Integral Group

    LIT Design Awards Light Art Project Winner: Integral Group

    December 19, 2022 Prize(s) Winners in Light Art Project Company Integral Group Lead Designers Ellie Niakan + Catherine Chan Photo Credits Catherine Chan Completion Date December 21, 2021 Project Location New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada Although appearing as solitary, trees are connected to one another through vast underground systems known as mycorrhizal networks. Through these hidden systems—a symbiotic relationship between plants… Read More…


New Products

  • Introducing LED-integrated Wine Rack System from MP Lighting

    Introducing LED-integrated Wine Rack System from MP Lighting

    March 23, 2023 Wine enthusiasts, sommeliers, and casual appreciators alike can all agree: wine is delicate. The naturally occurring chemicals in the wine can be disturbed by many environmental factors, mainly heat, lighting, and vibrations. To aid in the prevention of these factors spoiling the wine, wine racks can be installed. LED-integrated wine rack systems… Read More…

  • Punctuate with Hyphen. New architectural luminaire system by Fluxwerx

    Punctuate with Hyphen. New architectural luminaire system by Fluxwerx

    March 23, 2023 Fluxwerx makes a break from the ordinary with the launch of Hyphen—a family of discrete recessed and surface luminaires to design, define and leave your mark. With Portal, Fluxwerx pushed past conventional downlights and cylinders in our drive to give designers new and differentiated aesthetic options with innovative optics that maximize visual… Read More…