Prof. Didier Queloz is a world-renowned astronomer and Nobel Prize winner. He is a professor of physics at Cambridge Cavendish Laboratory and ETH Zurich. He has received worldwide recognition for his discoveries and for developing new astronomical instruments and experimental techniques that allowed the first observations of planets outside the solar system. In 1995, together with M. Mayor, he discovered the first exoplanet (planet outside the Solar System) orbiting the star Pegasus 51. In 2019 (together with J. Peebles and M. Mayor), he received the Nobel Prize in Physics. He is the recipient of many international awards including the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award, or the Wolf Prize in Physics, and is a member of many international research teams.
Prof. Didier Queloz will give a lecture entitled “The Revolution of Exoplanets in the Footsteps of Copernicus” on the first day of the Futurist of The Year 2024 Science Congress, which will be held April 9-11 in Warsaw. During his speech, Prof. Queloz will share with the participants of the congress organized by the Nicolaus Copernicus Superior School, his unique insights on the development of space research and the impact of astronomical discoveries on our understanding of the universe.
Please visit www.futuristoftheyear.com where you will find all the information about the Futurist of The Year 2024 Science Congress!
Prof. Didier Queloz – BIO
Didier Queloz was born in 1966 in Switzerland. He received his PhD from the University of Geneva. He is a professor of physics at Cambridge Cavendish Laboratory and ETH Zurich. In 1995, together with M. Mayor, he discovered the first exoplanet (planet outside the solar system), orbiting the star Pegasus 51. In 2019 (together with J. Peebles and M. Mayor) he received the Nobel Prize in Physics.
He was the initiator of the “exoplanet revolution” in astrophysics in 1995, when, during his PhD, working with his supervisor Michel Mayor, they announced the first discovery of a giant planet orbiting another star outside the solar system. This landmark discovery started a revolution in astronomy and launched the field of exoplanet research. Over the next 25 years, Queloz’s scientific contributions essentially consisted of making advances in the ability to detect and measure exoplanet systems to obtain information about their physical structure in order to better understand their formation and evolution compared to our solar system. His research focuses on the detection of Earth-like planets and issues related to the existence of extraterrestrial life forms in space. As part of his activities, he has carried out research programs that have led to the discovery of hundreds of planets with groundbreaking results.
In 2011, Prof. Queloz received (together with Prof. Michel Mayor) the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Science for developing new astronomical instruments and experimental techniques that led to the first observations of planets outside the solar system. In 2019, he (along with Mayor) received the Nobel Prize and the Wolf Prize in Physics for the discovery of the first extrasolar planet orbiting a Sun-like star.
