| Citation | Catherine Cesarsky is currently Director of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), a post she has held since 1999. Her successful leadership of ESO, the pre-eminent international organisation for ground-based astronomy (which the UK joined in 2002) is built in a first class scientific reputation and outstanding abilities as diplomat and administrator. Cesarsky's early research (1966-74), with periods at Harvard, CalTech and in Argentina, included several substantial contributions in the study of cosmic rays, magnetic fields and the interstellar medium. Moving to the Service d'Astrophysique (Sap) in Saclay in 1974, she rose rapidly to become Head of the Theory Group in 1978 and Head of the Sap in 1985, a post she held until moving to the French Atomic Energy Commission (1994-99), where she was responsible for basic research in physics, chemistry, astrophysics and space science. A major scientific contribution during the years at Sap was the successful development and operation of ISOCAM, a uniquely powerful far-infrared camera flown on the Infrared Space Observatory. Her research interests at ESO are increasingly focused on the multiwavelength study of faint and distant objects, by bringing together the most powerful space and ground-based observatories. Dr Cesarsky is due to be elected in 2006 as President of the International Astronomical Union, the body which since 1919 has been charged with safeguarding and promoting the science of astronomy worldwide. |