ESO Science Outreach Network
The ESO education and Public Outreach Department has established a network of contacts in the ESO Member states and other countries. The goal of this ESO Science Outreach Network (ESON) is to act locally as ESO's media and outreach representative, in order to promote ESO's mission and achievements, and demonstrate the many inspirational aspects of astronomy. The ESON contacts can also serve as interface between the local scientists and the media. The communication between the member states (at the official and scientific levels) and ESO, takes place through ESO's governing bodies, and not through ESON, which deals only with outreach matters.
The ESON members are science communicators who know the national media and stake-holders, and regularly interact with them. They have a strong interest in promoting ESO, and provide regular inputs and ideas for how to best reach the target groups in their area. The ESON nodes are also in charge of translating the ESO material in their national language.
Below is the list of ESON members. If your country is not represented, and if you or your organization would be interested in acting as ESO's local outreach contact, contact us at information@eso.org.
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ESO Member States — Contacts and Biographies
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AustriaESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/austria.html
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BelgiumESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/belgium.html
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BrazilESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/brazil.html 
Dr Gustavo RojasNúcleo de Formação de Professores — Universidade Federal de São Carlos Gustavo began his astronomy activities while he was a physics undergraduate at the University of São Paulo (USP). He then undertook postgraduate studies at USP, investigating young, low-mass stars, their chemical abundances and circumstellar environments. Since 2008 he has been a full-time astronomer at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), located 240 km northwest of São Paulo. He is in charge of a small observatory and works mainly on educational and outreach activities. Among the projects he is currently working on are the videocast, O Céu da Semana (The Weekly Sky) and the radio show Paideia. Both are produced in collaboration with the Open Laboratory for Interactivity (LAbI) at UFSCar. He is also an editor of the Latin American Journal of Astronomy Education (RELEA) and one of the Brazilian representatives in Galileo Teacher Training Program. His main interests in addition to astronomy are travelling, reading, photography and music. |
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Czech RepublicESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/czechrepublic.html 
Mgr. Viktor Votruba PhDStellar Department Viktor Votruba studied at the Masaryk University at Brno University in the Czech Republic. After receiving a Bachelor's degree in general physics, he moved to the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics at the same university. During his subsequent studies he focused mainly on nonlinear dynamics (for which he was awarded a Master's degree in 2000) and the hydrodynamics of the stellar wind from hot stars (obtaining his PhD on the topic in 2006). He was awarded the Dean's prize in the Faculty of Natural Science for his work on nonlinear dynamics. Afterwards, he took up a post-doctoral position at the Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Science, where he continued to work on stellar wind dynamics and nonlinear effects in stellar variability, and now works as a scientist. For his contributions to the study of the stellar wind from hot stars Viktor was awarded the Otto Wichterle Prize. He teaches a course in numerical methods in astrophysics and cosmology at Masaryk University and is an experienced supervisor of diploma and doctoral theses. He has been a member of the IAU since 2008. Viktor Votruba has been popularising the natural sciences, and especially astronomy, for ten years, ever since he started as a lector at the public observatory in Brno. He teaches and informs students and the general public alike about new results in astronomy and about progress made in astrophysical research at an introductory level. He was also a co-organiser for the astronomical camp for young astronomers, which is hosted at the public observatory every summer. When not doing astronomy he is also a big volleyball fan. Read Viktor's personal web page: http://physics.muni.cz/%7Evotruba/uvod.html |
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DenmarkESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/denmark.html 
Tina IbsenTycho Brahe Planetarium Tina Ibsen holds a degree in astrophysics from the Niels Bohr Institute at Copenhagen University. While at the University of Wales, in Aberystwyth, she specialized in the solar corona —the sun's very large and very hot extended atmosphere— and space weather. She also worked on solar storms within the COMESEP EU project, and then at DTU Space in Lyngby. Since 2013, Tina has been working at the Tycho Brahe Planetarium in Copenhagen, and when she finds the time to do some research, she investigates how solar storms propagate through our solar system. |
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FinlandESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/finland.html
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FranceESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/france.html 
Thierry BottiResponsable de la communication After a master’s degree in economics and additional studies in communication, Thierry’s interest in international cooperation took him to the French Ministry of Education and Research. He went on to work in the cooperation and international division of the Ministry, and subsequently for a new French agency called EduFrance (now named Campus France). In both cases he was in charge of promoting French higher education to foreign students. He specialised in Latin American countries, organising numerous events from Argentina to Mexico, via Brazil, Venezuela etc. After that, he decided to spend some years working in South America, taking a new professional direction as deputy director of the Alliance Française in Buenos Aires, which is not only an educational institution dedicated to teaching French, but also a cultural centre and an important media library, offering a large range of activities related to the French language and culture. He then chose once again to turn his knowledge in communication toward another field of activities and found a job at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in charge of the communication department of the Observatoire Astronomique de Marseille Provence. Here he manages many activities including outreach, press relations and public relations. A very exciting job. |
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GermanyESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/germany.html 
Dr Markus PösselHaus der Astronomie Markus Pössel obtained his diploma in physics from Hamburg University in 1997, staying on for a PhD in quantum gravity, which he completed in 2003. Research for this PhD was carried out at the Max-Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), where Markus also started his slow slide into science outreach, writing several books, editing a popular science website on relativity theory called Einstein Online, and co-curating part of the Einstein exhibition in Berlin in 2005, among other activities. In 2007, he moved to New York as Senior Science Advisor to the newly-founded World Science Festival. In 2009, he returned to Germany, where he is now managing scientist of the Haus der Astronomie (literally the House of Astronomy), a newly-founded Centre for Astronomy Education and Outreach in Heidelberg. In 2010 he became the chief public relations officer at the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy. 
Dr Carolin LiefkeHaus der Astronomie Carolin has been an amateur astronomer since the impact of comet Shoemaker–Levi 9 on Jupiter in 1994, when she was thirteen years old. Two years later she bought her first real telescope, a three-inch refractor. Today she owns a total of four telescopes, the biggest one a 16-inch dobsonian. Carolin is a member of several astronomy associations and a moderator in the Astrotreff, one of the biggest German-speaking astronomy-related internet communities. Carolin studied physics at the University of Hamburg and worked on stellar activity and X-ray astronomy at the Hamburger Sternwarte for her PhD. Among the highlights of her scientific career were two visits to Paranal, where she observed flare stars with the UVES spectrograph at Kueyen, one of the VLT's 8-metre telescopes. For more than ten years, Carolin has been involved in astronomy education and outreach. In March 2010, she turned this passion into a profession and is now working at the Haus der Astronomie, the Centre for Astronomy Education and Outreach in Heidelberg, where she is responsible for teacher training in astronomy at the University of Heidelberg, astronomy-related projects for high-school students, and for the centre’s telescopes. Carolin is a big fan of science fiction and fantasy. In her spare time, she goes hiking and climbing in the Alps. |
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ItalyESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/italy.html 
Anna WolterVia Brera, 28 Anna Wolter is an astrophysicist, and has been working at the INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera in Milan, Italy since 1991. After a physics degree in Milan she began her scientific career at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. There she helped to construct one of the best-exploited surveys of X-ray sources, serendipitously found in the Einstein Observatory images, the Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey (EMSS). She has dealt with all kinds of X-ray emitters, from stars to clusters of galaxies, but her main interest was with the class of the highly luminous and variable galaxy nuclei called BL Lacs. More recently she has moved from the point-like sources at the centres of galaxies to the diffuse/unresolved emission within them. She now devotes much of her time to the study of ultraluminous X-ray sources, a puzzling class of sources in external galaxies, which probably harbour heavy black holes, intermediate in mass between the light stellar ones and the supermassive nuclei at the centre of galaxies. Part to the time she focuses on the statistical analysis of complete samples, deriving luminosity functions, and for the remainder she studies in detail a few selected and complex objects, like galaxies, which have many different components that contribute to the overall emission. The main wavelength of interest is always X-ray, but Anna believes that a multiwavelength approach is important for a complete insight into an astronomical problem and so has worked with almost every energy band accessible. She is Principal Investigator of optical, radio, X-ray and gamma-ray observations of various celestial sources. She is author and co-author of about a hundred papers in refereed journals and about as many contributions to International meetings. In the last ten years she has devoted a significant fraction of her time to both teaching and outreach activities. She delivers lectures on key topics as part of the astrophysics curriculum at the Milan universities, and tutors Laurea and post-Laurea students. She delivers conferences and lectures for the public and for high school and middle school classes on various astrophysical topics. |
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The NetherlandsESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/netherlands.html
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PortugalESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/portugal.html 
João FernandesDepartamento de Matemática João Fernandes earned a PhD in Astrophysics in 1996 from the University of Paris and since 1999 he has been working as an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. He is an astronomer at the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Coimbra and his research areas are stellar evolution and history of astronomy. Since 1994 he has published around 60 papers and contributions for meeting proceedings, in both fields. João Fernandes is member of the European Astronomical Society Council. In 2007 he was nominated by the International Astronomical Union as the IYA2009 Single Point of Contact for Portugal, and since 2009 he has been the Portuguese member of the ESO Science Outreach Network (ESON). His main hobbies are music, literature and football. 
Dr. Margarida Serote RoosLightcurve Films Margarida Serote holds a PhD in astrophysics (University of Paris 7, 1996). Her main research field concerned extragalactic astronomy, namely the study of active galactic nuclei in terms of their stellar populations. She has also worked on large-scale structures, trying to understand the effects of redshift and environment in clusters of galaxies. For almost 14 years Margarida worked as a scientist at the Paris–Meudon Observatory, France, and afterwards at the Lisbon Observatory, Portugal. She has been actively promoting astronomy to the public ever since she started her undergraduate studies in 1986, by giving talks, courses, leading planetarium shows and writing popular articles. For four years she edited a monthly publication of the Lisbon Observatory, distributed on a national level to all secondary schools and was a founding member of the Portuguese Astronomical Society. More recently she has started working as a film producer. Together with her husband, she runs a small film company called Lightcurve Films. They have produced over 35 films, mostly on topics related to astrophysics, often with an educational angle and aimed at younger students and a general audience. Margarida also translates scientific books. |
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SpainESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/spain.html
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SwedenESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/sweden.html 
Robert CummingOnsala Space Observatory Robert Cumming, 43, lives in Göteborg, Sweden. Born in Scotland, he studied in Edinburgh and London and moved to Stockholm in 1994. He is an astronomer at the Onsala Space Observatory, where he mostly works with outreach and information. When he gets a chance to do some research, he is interested in measuring the gas and stars in nearby galaxies that resemble the blue, energetic star factories that were common when the Universe was younger. Haro 11 is a favourite. He is also editor for the Swedish astronomy magazine Populär Astronomi and blogs about astronomy and space in Swedish at the magazine's page popast.nu. You can find him on Twitter as @maltesk, or out in the wilds with a pair of binoculars in his hands. At night for the stars, of course, or by day for birdwatching. 
Daniel DahlinOnsala Space Observatory Daniel Dahlin studied physics and astronomy at Chalmers university of technology. Having acquired his master’s of science in 2005, he went on to graduate studies at Chalmers and the Onsala space observatory. His dissertation, defended in 2011, discusses star-forming galaxies in the distant universe, and their contents of dust and molecular gas. The aim of the research is to understand the evolution of galaxies, and to relate nearby galaxies with those seen in the early universe. During his graduate studies he worked on the SALSA-telescope (Such A Lovely Small Antenna), a small radio telescope used by teacher, pupils and students to get acquainted with radio astronomy and to detect radiation from the cold hydrogen gas in our galaxy. He now works at the Onsala space observatory with public outreach. When he is not doing research or communicating the latest scientific discoveries to the public, he enjoys playing music, photography and cooking. |
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SwitzerlandESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/switzerland.html 
Nicolas CrettonLiceo di Lugano 2 Nicolas studied physics at Geneva University, and specialised in astrophysics/astronomy at the Geneva Observatory. He graduated in 1993 and started a PhD with Professor P.T. de Zeeuw at Leiden University (The Netherlands). He worked on the construction of computer dynamical models for elliptical galaxies. Once this powerful tool was finished and tested, he applied it to several galaxies and showed that the observed stellar velocities could not be explained without the presence of dark matter, either in the form of supermassive central black holes (as for M32, the dwarf companion of the Andromeda Galaxy) or extended massive dark halos (as for NGC 2434). His main collaborators were H.-W. Rix, R.P. van der Marel and F. van den Bosch. After completing his PhD, he went to the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg in a post-doctoral position for two years. In 2001 he took up a fellowship at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Munich. In parallel to his ongoing research, Nicolas worked on a multi-fibre instrument for the VLT, Flames, which feeds two spectrographs, GIRAFFE and UVES. At the end of 2004, Nicolas moved to Lugano and became a high school physics teacher at the Liceo di Lugano 2. During his first year of teaching, he studied pedagogy in the Alta Scuola Pedagogica of Locarno and graduated in the summer of 2005. Check Nicolas’s classes here. In his free time, Nicolas enjoys biking, reading books, including comic books, playing video games. He is also interested in global warming, astrobiology, human origins and debating. |
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United KingdomESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/unitedkingdom.html 
Lucy StoneScience and Technology Facilities Council Lucy Stone is a press officer for the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), one of the UK’s leading research organisations. STFC runs the UK Astronomy Technology Centre and RAL Space, funds astronomy research in the UK, and manages the UK subscription to ESO. Lucy has a background in journalism, working for both commercial and BBC radio. As a reporter and newsreader, she has covered a wide variety of stories including football matches and pop concerts. She knows what makes a great story! Promoting astronomy research and STFC’s astronomy outreach activities are an important part of Lucy’s job. In September 2011, she led a highly successful visit for UK journalists to Chile that coincided with first light on the ALMA telescope. The visit generated extremely high levels of media coverage in the UK and around the world. She is still talking about the trip! Lucy leads media activity for the Dark Sky Discovery project, a national initiative to encourage community groups around the UK to find a local space where they can observe the night sky. Led by the STFC, the project brings together local astronomy clubs with Natural England to encourage more people to experience the wonders of the Universe. |
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ChileESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/chile/ 
Valentina RodriguezESO Santiago Office |
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AlbaniaESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/albania/ 
Herald BuneciRr. M. Shyri, Pallati. 5, Shkalla 1, Apartamenti 8, Erald Buneci was born on 14 January, 1976 in Tirana, Albania. As long as he can remember, he has always been fascinated by physics in general and astronomy in particular. He is graduated in physics at the University of Tirana in 2002. Since 2002, he has been an active member of the “Albanian Astronomical Society” (QShA – Qendra Shqiptare e Astrofizikes www.albastrofizika.org), and he is the Society's web master. He is also member and representative of the “Teacher Training Program” in Albania and IYA 2009. In 2003-2005 he also worked as a translator of scientific articles for newspapers in Tirana. Since 2002, he is a secondary school teacher, in physics, mathematics and computer science. |
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HungaryESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/hungary/ Ákos Kereszturi
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IcelandESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/iceland/ 
Sævar Helgi BragasonCenter for Astrophysics and Cosmology Sævar was born on 17 April 1984 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Fascinated by astronomy for as long as he can remember, he became hooked when he saw Saturn through a telescope for the first time at a very young age. Sævar did not head straight to university after he finished high school, but became a high school teacher in physics and astronomy for two years. After that, he started undergraduate studies in geology at the University of Iceland, with the aim of becoming a planetary geologist, but he soon discovered that his heart belonged to astrophysics. Therefore, he decided to start studying astrophysics in Denmark in late 2011. He is mostly fascinated by observational astrophysics, and the search for exoplanets in particular. Along with his studies, Sævar works as a science communicator/Public Information Officer for the Centre of Astrophysics and Cosmology at the University of Iceland. He is also an editor of the Icelandic astronomy website http://www.stjornuskodun.is and chairman of the Amateur Astronomical Society. He runs a small company called Sjónaukar.is which specialises in selling telescopes and other equipment for stargazers. Other interests involve hiking, travelling, playing and watching football (a passionate Liverpool fan), photography and relaxing in front of his HDTV. He loves seeing the Universe with his own eyes, but his greatest joy is watching his son growing up. 31 December 2010 was the best day of his life — when he witnessed his fiancée give birth to their son. |
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IrelandESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/ireland/ Clair McSweeney
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LatviaESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/latvia/ Martins Gills
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NorwayESO min-site: http://www.eso.org/public/norway/ 
Dr Andreas O. JaunsenUniversity of Oslo Andreas has a PhD in astronomy (gravitational lensing) from the University of Oslo in 2000. He was Junior Astronomer at the Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma, Canary Islands, from 1995 to 1996, and Operations staff astronomer at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile from 2000 to 2005. Andreas worked as a post-doctoral researcher (mainly on gamma-ray bursts) at the University of Oslo from 2005 to 2008, and was a full-time national coordinator for the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) from 2008 to 2009. Jan-Erik Ovaldsen
E-mail: eson-norway@eso.org Jan-Erik holds a Master of Science in astronomy (photometry and gravitational lensing) from the University of Oslo, 2002. He then did research at PhD level on gamma-ray bursts and their host galaxies. Author of several popular astronomy books published in Norway and other Nordic countries, Jan-Erik also has experience with public outreach related to astronomy, being involved in the International Year of Astronomy 2009. |
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PolandESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/poland/ 
Krzysztof CzartUrania – Postępy Astronomii Krzysztof Czart is an astronomer and science journalist. He graduated in astronomy at the Nicolas Copernicus University in Toruń, the city where Nicolas Copernicus was born. His main scientific interests are stellar spectroscopy, variable stars, massive stars, Wolf–Rayet stars and OB associations. He is a member of the Polish Astronomical Society and the author of hundreds of news articles about astronomy, astronautics and space research on internet portals, as well as many popular articles about astronomy in printed magazines. He created the English–Polish and Polish–English Astronomical Dictionary used by many internet dictionaries (including Onet.pl) as well as the Astronomical Dictionary of the Polish Astronomical Society. He has also worked for television, preparing data and texts about astronomy that were broadcasted every day by the TVN Meteo channel. He created Astronomia.pl — the Polish Astronomy Portal, which was the biggest and the most popular astronomical portal in Poland. He was Editor in Chief of the portal since its launch in 2001 to 2011. Krzysztof was also editor of the Kosmos – Tajemnice Wszechświata astronomy magazine. He collaborates with the science section of the Polish Press Agency and is editor of Urania – Postępy Astronomii astronomy magazine.
While his main specialisation is communicating astronomy through written text and over the internet, he has taken part in many other activities, including leading guided tours at an astronomical observatory, giving lectures for school students and amateur astronomers, participating in science festivals and bringing exciting international projects in education and the communication of astronomy to Poland. |
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RomaniaESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/romania/ 
Valentin GrigoreRomanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy (SARM) |
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RussiaESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/russia/ 
Dr. Kirill MaslennikovThe Central (Pulkovo) Astronomical Observatory of Russian Academy of Sciences |
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TurkeyESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/turkey/ 
Arif SolmazUniversity of Cag |
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UkraineESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/ukraine/ 
Oleg MaliyNGO Zaporozhye Astronomical Club Altair Oleg has been an amateur astronomer since he was eight years old. He studied astronomy at Kharkov State University. In 2004 he organised the NGO Zaporozhye Astronomical Club Altair and is its manager. He works as an engineer in the field of industrial gas meters and calculators.
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United StatesESO mini-site: http://www.eso.org/public/usa/ 
Dr. Paola RebuscoESO Science Outreach Network |
