Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture

The Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture honours astronomers of outstanding scientific distinction.

2024

The 2024 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is awarded to

Prof. Roland Bacon (CRAL/CNRS/ENS de Lyon/Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University, France)

for the development of integral field spectroscopy as a core technique in observational astrophysics and its application to a wide range of problems, in particular galaxy evolution.


2023

The 2023 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is awarded to

Prof. Isabelle Baraffe (University of Exeter, United Kingdom and CRAL/CNRS/ENS de Lyon/Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University, France)

for fundamental contributions to the understanding of low mass stars, brown dwarfs and exoplanets.


2022

The 2022 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is awarded to

Prof. Bożena Czerny (Center for Theoretical Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland)

for her contributions to our understanding of the physics of accretion disks and the broad line regions in active galactic nuclei, as well as for her application of quasars to constrain the cosmological model at high redshift and open a window on the role of dark energy.


2021

The 2021 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is awarded to

Prof. Amina Helmi (University of Groningen, Netherlands)

for advances in the understanding of how the Milky Way assembled using dynamical simulations together with Gaia observations of the distances, velocities, ages, and chemical abundances of stars.


2020

Photo credit:
Dr Robert A.E. Fosbury

The 2020 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is awarded to

Prof. Alvio Renzini (National Institute of Astrophysics, at the Astronomical Observatory of Padova, Italy)

for his key contributions to the understanding of stars, stellar populations and the evolution of galaxies and his essential contributions to the success of ESO in his role as VLT Programme Scientist.


2019

The 2019 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is awarded to

Prof. Licia Verde (ICREA at University of Barcelona, Spain)

for outstanding work in cosmology, especially in the study of the cosmic microwave background and the large-scale structure of the Universe.


2018

The 2018 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is awarded to

Prof. Conny Aerts (KU Leuven, Belgium and Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands)

for outstanding work in stellar physics, in particular in the field of asteroseismology.


2017

The 2017 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is awarded to

Prof. Bengt Gustafsson

for his rich scientific career on the theory of stellar atmospheres, the interpretation of stellar spectra, and the chemical evolution of galaxies.


2016

The 2016 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is awarded to

Prof. Thibault Damour

for his outstanding career on theoretical implications of General Relativity and in particular on the prediction of the newly-observed gravitational wave signal of coalescing binary black holes.


2015

The 2015 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is awarded to

Prof. Ewine van Dishoeck

for her outstanding career in molecular astrophysics, in particular in the domain of star and planet formation.


2014

The 2014 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is awarded to

Prof. Rashid Sunyaev

for his outstanding career in theoretical and high-energy astrophysics, cosmology, X-ray astronomy and space research.


2013

The 2013 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is awarded to

Dr. Suzy Collin-Zahn

for her fundamental contributions to the understanding of Active Galactic Nuclei.


2012

The 2012 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is awarded to

Prof. Wolfgang Hillebrandt

for his fundamental contributions to the study of supernova explosions.


2011

The 2011 Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is awarded to

Prof. George Miley

for his fundamental contributions to the study of radio galaxies.


2010

The Council of the European Astronomical Society (EAS) has the pleasure to announce the creation of a new award: the "Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture" and is delighted that

Prof. Lodewijk Woltjer

accepted to give the first "Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture" at the opening session of the EWASS 2010 on Monday, September 7, 2010, in Lisbon, Portugal.


Statutes

  1. The European Astronomical Society honours astronomers of outstanding scientific distinction by extending an invitation to give the Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture.
  2. The laureate receives a medal and a certificate.
  3. The selection of the Lodewijk Woltjer laureate is made by the Council of the EAS. This decision cannot be contested.
  4. The Lodewijk Woltjer Lecture is presented at the EAS annual meeting of the EAS.