Jean Surdej
Honorary Full Professor and Research Director (F.R.S.- FNRS) in Astrophysics, Department of Astrophysics, Geophysics and Oceanography at University of Liège, Belgium
University of Liège Ambassador (2024)
VAJRA Adjunct Faculty at ARIES (Nainital, India)
Allée du 6 Août 19c, 4000 Liège
Tel.: 32-04-3669783
E-mail: jsurdej@uliege.be
The 4-m international liquid mirror telescope has just been inaugurated in India in the presence of Didier Vanderhasselt (Belgian Ambassador to India), Prof. Anne-Sophie Nyssen (Rector of the University of Liège) and Prof. Jean Surdej (Principal Investigator of the 4-m ILMT project, University of Liège). Were also present: Brigitte Decadt and Laurent Ghys (BELSPO), Synhaeve Timothy and Guillaume de Bassompierre (Embassy of Belgium), Xavier Verians (AMOS), Dr Ronald Van der Linden (Director of ROB) and Dr Peter De Cat (ROB and Belgian organizer of BINA). There were about 250 participants among which some 35 Belgian ones.
The telescope, commissioned at Devasthal, a hill in Uttarakhand, will help in surveying the sky making it possible to observe stars, galaxies, quasars and other astronomical sources just by staring at the strip of sky that passes overhead. It is the first liquid mirror telescope in India and the largest in Asia. ....
“The data collected from ILMT will be ideally suited to perform a deep photometric and astrometric variability survey over a period of typically 5 years,” ...
Jean Surdej earned the Physical Sciences degree in 1975, a Ph.D. in Astrophysics in 1979 and the academic habilitation in 1991. All these degrees were obtained at University of Liège, Belgium, Faculty of Sciences where he was following a career under the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS). In 1995 he obtained the title of F.R.S.-FNRS Research Director and in 2002 has switched to an academic career path, obtaining the title of Full Professor at University of Liège in 2007, visiting professor at the University Adam Mickiewicz (Poznan, Poland) and VAJRA Adjunct Faculty at ARIES (Nainital, India). Since October 2017, he is also involved in research, teaching and formationn activities abroad (Qatar, India, Chile, Poland, ...).
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Curriculum vitae - short:
He has held or still holds several positions abroad like a research cooperation position at the European Southern Observatory (ESO, La Silla, Chile) in 1976-1978, ESO fellow at ESO (Geneva, Switzerland) in 1978-1980, Research Paid Associate at ESO (Garching bei München, Germany) in 1983-1985, ESA (European Space Agency) Astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI, NASA / ESA, Baltimore, Maryland, USA) in 1993 - 1996 and various short study and sabbatical positions at ESO, NRAO (National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, Virginia), Mount Wilson Observatory (Carnegie, Pasadena, California), MMTO (Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory, Tucson, Arizona), Nice Observatory (France), Observatory of the University of Hawaii and ARIES (Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, Nainital & Devasthal, India).
J. Surdej has submitted more than 40 proposals for research contracts that were honored. He has also actively participated in the writing of more than 100 (accepted) applications for observing time with instruments from the ground (ESO, Las Campanas, MMTO, CFHT, OHP, ARIES, ...) and from space (IUE, HST, XMM-Newton).
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