Professor Felix Aharonian, Astonomy and Astrophysics section – School of Cosmic Physics, has won a prestigious award from the American Astronomical Society. The 2010 Rossi prize was awarded to Felix Aharonian, Werner Hoffmann, Heinz Voelk and the H.E.S.S. (High Energy Stereoscopic System) collaboration for their outstanding contributions to imaging TeV Astronomy, which addressed fundamental questions related to particle acceleration and the origin of the Cosmic Rays through the study of SNRs, PWN and nearby AGNs. Professor Aharonian, originally from Armenia, has worked in Moscow, Yerevan, Chicago, Paris and Heidelberg before joining the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in 2006. His work addresses fundamental issues to do with how some astronomical systems accelerate charged particles to very high energies and the possibilities of observationally detecting these particles through the high-energy gamma rays they produce. The H.E.S.S. collaboration, of which the Dublin Institute is a member, has revolutionised the field by opening up a new observational window for astronomers at extremely high energies.