Didier Queloz

A renowned astrophysicist, Didier Queloz is an indispensable source for anyone wishing to understand what is presently known about the cosmos. In 1995, while studying for a PhD at the University of Geneva, he and his thesis supervisor, Michel Mayor, discovered a planet orbiting another star outside the solar system, namely 51 Pegasi b (officially called Dimidium), a “gas giant” some fifty light years from Earth. This major discovery revolutionised astrophysics, in methodology and also understanding of planetary systems, and thus representing the beginning of what is now called the exoplanets revolution. Since then, Didier Queloz has worked as a scientist in prestigious institutions where he has contributed to the discovery of more than 250 extrasolar planets. He is a professor at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, at the University of Geneva, and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) where he heads the Centre for the Origin and Prevalence of Life. He has also worked on international projects including HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher) and the Terra Hunting Experiment programme, which aims to discover Earth-like exoplanets. He has received the highest international awards for his pioneering contributions to astronomy, among them the Frontiers of Knowledge Award from the BBVA Foundation (2012), the Wolf Prize (2017) and, with Michel Mayor and James Peebles, the Nobel Prize in Physics (2019). In addition to his research career, Didier Queloz, a committed advocate for the dissemination of scientific knowledge, has participated in numerous science education projects.