For her leadership in bringing to fruition some of the most important international astronomical observatories, for her statesmanship through her approaches to the highest political leaders in France, Europe, and Chile, and for her service as president of the International Astronomical Union, among other prestigious organizations.
Born in France, Catherine Cesarsky earned her master’s degree in physics from the University of Buenos Aires and her doctorate in astronomy from Harvard University. She was a research fellow at the California Institute of Technology.
In 1974, she joined the joined the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), a large public research organization in France, and a major player in research, development, and innovation. She became the head of astrophysics in 1985, and director of all CEA basic research in physics and chemistry in 1994.
After her stint at CEA, Dr. Cesarsky served as the director general of the European Southern Observatory. As such, she oversaw the end of construction and operation of ESO’s Very Large Telescope, and the early construction of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array of radio telescopes in Chile -- two remarkable astronomical facilities that have transformed our understanding of our place in the universe.
She launched the European Extremely Large Telescope project, a facility, presently under construction, that promises to enable detailed studies of exoplanets, the first galaxies in the universe, and the nature of the so-called dark universe. Back in France, she became advisor to the French government for science and energy as the high commissioner for atomic energy. Since 2012, she is a high-level science advisor at CEA.
Dr. Cesarsky is currently working with the Square Kilometer Array Observatory consortium, an international effort, as its chair to build the world’s largest radio telescope in Australia and South Africa. The SKA promises to revolutionize understanding of the universe, addressing a wide range of questions of relevance in all areas of astrophysics. The SKA telescopes will surpass by a large margin any other radio astronomy instrument in sensitivity, resolution, and field of view.
For most of her career, Dr. Cesarsky has been in the forefront of encouraging other countries to construct optical and radio telescopes and working with international agencies and collaborations for deep space discoveries, often meeting and influencing leaders of those countries.
In 2009, she served as the president of the International Astronomical Union during the International Year of Astronomy 2009. The celebration stimulated worldwide interest, especially among young people, in astronomy and science under the central theme, “The Universe, Yours to Discover,“ but for her, it meant more opportunities to meet with world leaders and promote astronomy.
Dr. Cesarsky was the principal investigator for ISOCAM, the infrared camera on board the Infrared Space Observatory satellite of the European Space Agency. She was also principal investigator of the ITGES collaboration that conducted deep surveys using ISOCAM, which discovered that infrared galaxies were much more numerous in the past and unveiled the sources of the mid-infrared background.
She is a member of the Academia Europaea, the Académie des Sciences de l’Institut de France, and the International Academy of Astronautics. She is a foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of the Royal Society of London, and a corresponding member of the National Academy of Exact and Natural Sciences of Argentina.
Dr. Cesarsky is the author of more than 150 refereed papers dealing with cosmic-ray production and propagation, the interstellar medium, gamma-ray sources, particle acceleration in astrophysical shocks, and the emission and detection of infrared radiation from astrophysical sources, including deep surveys of luminous infrared galaxies and the classification of star-forming galaxies.