Dr Frank Prendergast

Frank is a chartered geodetic surveyor, archaeoastronomer, holds a PhD awarded by the School of Archaeology, University College Dublin (2011), and is an associate member of the International Astronomical Union. He retired from TU Dublin in 2012 as Head of Department of Geospatial Sciences but continues to date as an Emeritus Research Fellow of the University. His work blends archaeological findings with geospatial data collected in the Irish landscape and beyond to ask and answer theoretical questions related to how societies in the prehistoric past perceived their world. His transdisciplinary fields of research span Cultural Astronomy, Skyscape Archaeology and aCosmology. Investigative methods include site surveys, spatial data processing, and probability analysis. By layering these data and findings onto the archaeological record, our understanding of how preliterate societies in the Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age perceived and symbolised their environment is advanced. He continues to publish, lecture internationally and advises heritage organisations on relevant cultural matters.

In 2024, The European Society for Astronomy in Culture (SEAC) awarded him the biennial Carlos Jaschek gold medal ‘for his outstanding contributions in the field of cultural astronomy’. 

Frank is a co-presenter of the Winter Solstice Livestream from Newgrange with Dr Clare Tuffy since 2020, reaching vast audiences worldwide. Drawing on that work, he was commissioned to writer the Newgrange Solstice Research Report 2024 published by the World Heritage Unit UNESCO, National Monuments Service, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. This document is available at  https://arrow.tudublin.ie/arastart/15/ and   

https://www.worldheritageireland.ie/category/publications/. 

Access to his non-embargoed publications are available on ARROW https://arrow.tudublin.ie/.