University of Leicester - Space is golden

Fifty years of space research is being celebrated at the University of Leicester, with tributes to Ken Pounds, one of the professors who established the discipline at the institution. Among the events planned are an international conference attended by Leicester space graduates and a "Sky at Night" to be broadcast in the summer. Professor Pounds was appointed assistant lecturer to help set up the space research group at Leicester in 1960 and is still there. The group now has about 80 researchers, engineers, technicians and PhD students, with grants worth more than £12 million. Its work led to the creation of the National Space Centre in Leicester.