Lodewijk Woltjer lecture at JENAM 2010

Professor Lodewijk Woltjer, one of Europe’s outstanding astronomers of the second half of the twentieth century, and ESO Director General from 1975 till 1988, gives the inaugural "Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture" at the Joint European and National Astronomy Meeting (JENAM), held in Lisbon, Portugal, 6–10 September 2010. The "Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture" is an award created by the European Astronomical Society (EAS) to honour astronomers of outstanding scientific distinction, inviting them to present a lecture, usually to be given at the EAS's annual JENAM. Under Prof. Woltjer's leadership, ESO established itself as one of the world’s leading astronomical institutes, and took the decision to build the Very Large Telescope (VLT), the world’s most advanced optical, ground-based astronomical observatory.