Sami Solanki
Astrophysicist Sami Solanki is Director of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (Germany) and Professor at ETH Zurich and the Technical University of Brunswick. His group’s research is dedicated to understanding the physics of solar magnetism, activity and variability, as well as the Sun’s influence on the Earth’s climate. Professor Solanki is principal […]
Eva Villaver
Prof. Eva Villaver is a distinguished astrophysicist renowned for her groundbreaking research on the evolution of planetary systems around dying stars and her unwavering dedication to science outreach. Currently Deputy Director at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, she has made astronomy accessible to broad audiences through her popular science book Las mil caras de […]
Andreas Kaufer
Andreas Kaufer is a senior science leader at the European Southern Observatory (ESO). He earned his PhD in astronomy at Heidelberg University (1996) and joined ESO in 1999, contributing to the start of operations of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. His scientific work focuses on high-resolution spectroscopy of massive, luminous stars, probing how their atmospheres, winds, and circumstellar environments evolve and vary over […]
Laurie Anderson
Laurie Anderson is a writer, director, composer, visual artist, musician and vocalist who has created groundbreaking works that span the worlds of art, theater, experimental music, and technology. Her recording career was launched by O Superman in 1981. Anderson’s live shows range from simple spoken word to expansive multimedia stage performances such as the eight-hour United States (1982), Empty Places (1990), Songs and Stories from Moby […]
Scott Hubbard
Dr. Scott Hubbard has been a leader in space exploration for almost 50 years. His career includes a National Lab, a start-up venture, NASA, and Stanford. At NASA, Dr. Hubbard is best known as Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, the first Mars Program Director (aka the “Mars Czar”), and the founder of NASA’s Astrobiology […]
Svitlana Krakovska
Svitlana Krakovska graduated from the Leningrad Hydrometeorological Institute with a degree in meteorology. Prior to joining the Antarctic station, she was in Siberia and the Arctic. She has experience in mountaineering in the mountains of the Caucasus and Central Asia, Crimea and Karelia, skiing in the Khibiny Mountains, kayaking and catamaran rafting, and as a […]
Xavier Barcons
Xavier Barcons, ESO Director General since 1 September 2017, was born in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Catalonia, Spain in 1959. He received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in physical sciences from the University of Barcelona in 1981. He was awarded a PhD in statistical physics in 1985 from the University of Cantabria, Spain. Barcons began his academic […]
Armen Sarkissian
Armen Sarkissian is an Armenian physicist, computer scientist and politician, who currently serves as the incumbent President of Armenia. He served as Prime Minister of Armenia from 4 November 1996 to 20 March 1997 and previously was the country’s (longest-serving) ambassador in London since 1998. Sarkissian assumed the presidency on 9 April 2018. Armen Sarkissian […]
Russell Schweickart
Russell “Rusty” Schweickart is an American aeronautical engineer, and a former NASA astronaut, research scientist, U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, as well as a former business executive and government executive. Selected in 1963 for NASA’s third astronaut group, he is best known as the Lunar Module Pilot on the 1969 Apollo 9 mission, the first manned flight test of the Lunar Module, on which he performed the first in-space test […]
Robert Williams
Professor Robert Williams, an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), is President of the International Astronomical Union. (IAU). He is an STScI Distinguished Research Scholar and Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Physics and Astronomy Department in Baltimore. Professor Williams served as Hubble STScI Director from 1993 until 1998, before which he had […]