Queens’ PhD student Imad Ahmed wins Cambridge Award 2025 for Early Career Researcher

The Vice Chancellor’s Awards for Research Impact and Engagement aim to celebrate work that broke boundaries, engaged communities and shone a light on research fighting for a cause. Ahmed won the Early Career Research Award for his ‘Bring the Moon Back Home’ project.

12th February 2026

“From my first day, everybody at Queens’ has been so incredibly supportive, that I can say that this award, in no small part, has been facilitated by inclusive culture here at Queens’.”

Imad Ahmed is a PhD student in the Faculty of Divinity, and his research focuses on the topic of the Islamic lunar calendar. He is the project coordinator behind an exciting new multidisciplinary astronomy course for Muslim leaders in the UK called the Moonsighters Academy, which is a joint initiative of the University of Cambridge and the University of Leeds that trains Muslim community leaders to conduct moonsightings for the Islamic calendar.

In the UK, there is no local Islamic calendar. Due to a lack of resources and expertise, the Muslim community has never developed a national calendar, meaning Muslims across the UK celebrate Ramadan and Eid on different dates, depending on which calendar they use. This produces huge annual frictions and family divisions, which Imad hopes to diffuse.

Beyond his doctoral research, Ahmed is a Muslim Astronomy influencer, running the New Crescent Society social media pages, which celebrates the relationship between faith and astronomy. He has also worked with many prominent institutions to create Islamic astronomy programmes including the National History Museum, Stonehenge, City Hall, and the National Space Centre.

When asked about how it felt to win this award, Ahmed said:

I am humbled and honoured to receive this award, and wish to thank my supervisors, department and all those at Cambridge for their continued support. I want to make a special note of thanks to my college, Queens’ College, Cambridge University. I am a disabled student, suffering from a long-term illness called ‘long covid’, and began my PhD with very limited mobility, in a wheelchair. From my first day, everybody at Queens’ has been so incredibly supportive, that I can say that this award, in no small part, has been facilitated by inclusive culture here at Queens’. Thank you so much!

Imad will be returning to Cambridge in June for an on-site training session and evening lunar observation. More details can be found on the Cambridge Interfaith Programme website: https://www.interfaith.cam.ac.uk/moon

Article adapted from:

https://www.cam.ac.uk/public-engagement/cambridge-awards/2025/early-career-researcher/winner2

https://www.cam.ac.uk/public-engagement/cambridge-awards/2025