Didier Queloz

Didier Queloz
Queloz at the European Southern Observatory 50th anniversary gala, Residenz, Munich, October 11, 2012.
Born	February 23, 1966 (1966-02-23) (age 58)
Nationality	Swiss
Occupation	Astronomer
Awards	Wolf Prize in Physics (2017) Nobel Prize in Physics (2019)

Didier Queloz (born February 23, 1966) is a Swiss astronomer with a prolific record in finding extrasolar planets in the Astrophysics Group of the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, and also at the University of Geneva. He shared one fourth of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics for theoretical discoveries of cosmology.

In 1995 Queloz was a Ph.D. student at the University of Geneva when he and Michel Mayor, his doctoral advisor, discovered the first exoplanet around a main sequence star. For this achievement, they were awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star". Queloz performed an analysis on 51 Pegasi using radial velocity measurements (Doppler spectroscopy), and was astonished to find a planet with an orbital period of 4.2 days. He had been performing the analysis as an exercise to hone his skills. The planet, 51 Pegasi b, challenged the then accepted views of planetary formation, being a hot Jupiter or roaster. He has received the 2011 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award of Basic Sciences (co-winner with Michel Mayor) for developing new astronomical instruments and experimental techniques that led to the first observation of planets outside the solar system. In 2017 he received the Wolf Prize in Physics.. In 2019, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics , along with Michael Mayor and Jim Peebles.

External links

• "SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)", query for Didier Queloz. Includes 200 abstracts with Queloz listed as an author or co-author a/o February 23, 2017.