Dr. Henri M.J. Boffin
is an ESO Paranal Operations Staff Astronomer since August 2010 and the FORS2 and HARPS instrument scientist. He obtained his PhD from the UniversitУ? Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, in 1993.
As he is very keen to share science with society, he has experience in journalism and editing, and in 2003, joined ESO as Astronomer and Press Officer, dealing with communication about all telescopes and projects of ESO. He was member of the steering committee of the very successful Venus Transit 2004 Programme and of the EIROforum Science on Stage festivals, and coordinator of the IYA 2009 Gigagalaxy Zoom project.
Professional Activities
2010-today: Paranal Operations Staff Astronomer at ESO
2003-2010: Astronomer, Press Officer and Deputy Head of Public Affairs Department at ESO
1998-2003: Senior Astronomer at the Royal Observatory of Belgium
1996-1998: Research Assistant in the Star Formation group at Cardiff University (UK)
1994-1996: EU/JSPS Fellow at Kyoto and Kobe Universities (Japan)
Education
1994: Graduated from the 1st promotion of т??Journalist & Scientistт?? at the Ecole SupУ?rieure de Journalisme de Lille, France.
May 1993: Ph.D. Thesis in Astrophysics obtained at the UniversitУ? Libre de Bruxelles : "Is mass transfer a necessary and sufficient condition to explain Barium stars?", (abstract) Director: Prof. M. Arnould
November 15, 1990 - March 30, 1991: Guest of Max-Planck Insitut fУМr Astrophysik (Garching bei Munchen, Germany)
October 1987 - October 1990: I.R.S.I.A. fellowship
July 1987: Licence en Sciences Physiques obtained at the UniversitУ? Libre de Bruxelles.
Science
His research is devoted to the world of close binary stars, their formation and evolution. To this aim, he combines both observational and theoretical work, including hydrodynamical simulations. His current scientific interests also include symbiotic stars, Algols and binary nuclei of planetary nebulae, but more generally all interacting binary stars. Read more in my Science page.