About Will

Will Gater is an astronomer, journalist and author based in the UK. He has written extensively for the UK’s top science magazines including Sky at Night Magazine (where he currently works as features editor), Focus and Astronomy Now. Will is also a columnist for the BBC’s Knowledge Magazine where he writes a regular astronomy column called “Above & Beyond”.

Will is the author of The Cosmic Keyhole, Space 3D and co-author of Dorling Kindersley’s The Practical Astronomer. His latest book, The Night Sky Month by Month, was published by Dorling Kindersley in January 2011. Will is currently working on a new astronomy book for 2012.

Will has also worked as a science writer for the European Space Agency’s Hubble Space Telescope press office, in Munich, and has written press releases and other outreach material for both ESA/Hubble, the European Southern Observatory and the International Astronomical Union.

Will is a former news editor of Astronomy Now and holds a degree in astrophysics from University College London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and member of the Association of British Science Writers. He has appeared many times on television and radio (including the BBC’s The Sky At Night) to promote astronomy and science and has been giving public lectures around the UK for over ten years.

Today Will presents the Sky at Night Magazine’s monthly vodcast. His other writing credits include several scripts for the European Space Agency vodcast the Hubblecast and as the assistant editor of the first issue of the International Astronomical Union’s Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal. Will is also a judge on the annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards run by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich and the BBC’s Sky at Night Magazine.

Will in the news

“Silent Night”, Lost in London magazine, winter issue 2011-2012.

“How to…follow yonder star”, Reader’s Digest, December 2011.

“Starstruck: The importance of amateur astronomy”, The Independent, 18 October 2010. [Read the article here]

BBC Focus magazine podcast, February 2010. [Listen]