Futurist Of The Year 2024

PROF. DIDIER QUELOZ

PROF. DIDIER QUELOZ

Didier Queloz is at the origin of the ”exoplanet revolution” in astrophysics when in 1995 during his PhD with his supervisor they announced the first discovery of a giant planet orbiting another star, outside the solar system. This seminal discovery has spawned a revolution in astronomy and kick started the field of exoplanet research. Since then Didier Queloz scientific contributions have essentially been to make progress in detection and measurement capabilities of exoplanet systems with the goal to retrieve information on their physical structure to better understand their formation and evolution by comparison with our solar system. He was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics in recognition of his work. More recently he is directing his activity to the detection of Earth like planets and Universal life. In the course of his career he developed astronomical equipments, new observational approaches and detection algorithms. He participated and conducted programs leading to the detection of hundred planets, include breakthrough results. He participated to numerous documentaries movies, articles TV and radio interviews to share excitement and promote interest for science in general and particularly topics about exoplanets and life in the Universe. Prof. Didier Queloz is a world-famous astronomer and Nobel Prize laureate. He is professor of physics at the Cambridge Cavendish Laboratory and at the ETH Zürich. Worldwide recognition he gained for his discoveries and for developing new astronomical instruments and experimental techniques allowing the first observations of planets outside the solar system. In 1995, together with M. Mayor, he discovered the first exoplanet (a planet outside the Solar System), orbiting the star Pegasi 51. In 2019 (together with J. Peebles and M. Mayor) he received the Nobel Prize in Physics. He is the winner of many international awards, including: BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, Wolf Prize in Physics and member of many international research teams.