Dr. Catherine Cesarsky
Catherine Cesarsky, ESO Director General from 1999 till 2007, was born in France. She received a degree in Physical Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires and graduated with a PhD in Astronomy in 1971 from Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass., USA). Afterwards she worked at the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH).
In 1974, she became a staff member of the Service d'Astrophysique (SAp), Direction des Sciences de la Matière (DSM), Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA) (France). She led the theoretical group of the SAp (1978-1985), was Head of SAp (1985-1993), and then Director of DSM (1994 - 1999), where she was leading about 3000 scientists, engineers and technicians active within a broad spectrum of basic research programmes in physics, chemistry, astrophysics and earth sciences.
Dr. Cesarsky is known for her successful research activities in several central areas of modern astrophysics. She first worked on the theory of cosmic ray propagation and acceleration, and galactic gamma-ray emission. Later, she led the design and construction of the ISOCAM camera onboard the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) of the European Space Agency (ESA), and the ISOCAM Central Programme which studied the infrared emission from many different galactic and extragalactic sources. This has led to new and exciting results on star formation and galactic evolution, and in the identification of the sources providing the bulk of the energy in the Cosmic Infrared Background. Dr. Cesarsky is author of more than 250 scientific papers.
Dr. Cesarsky received the COSPAR (Committee on Space Research) Space Science Award in 1998. She is currently the President of the International Astronomical Union and a member of the Academia Europaea, of the European Academy of Sciences, and of the International Academy of Astronautics. She is a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London. She is also "Officier de la Légion d'Honneur".
She is married and has two children.
You can also find a detailed CV here.