Michel Mayor

Swiss astrophysicist & Nobel laureate of Physics

Michel Gustave Édouard Mayor (born 12 January 1942) is a Swiss astrophysicist. He was professor emeritus at the University of Geneva's Department of Astronomy. He retired in 2007, but works as a researcher at the Observatory of Geneva. He is co-winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics,[1] the 2010 Viktor Ambartsumian International Prize,[2] and the winner of the 2015 Kyoto Prize.

Michel G.E. Mayor
Born (1942-01-12) 12 January 1942 (age 82)
NationalitySwiss
Alma materLausanne University (M.S., 1966)
Geneva University (Ph.D, 1971)
Known forDiscovered first planet orbiting around a normal star, 51 Pegasi
AwardsPrix Jules Janssen (1998)
Shaw Prize (2005)
Wolf Prize (2017)
Nobel Prize in Physics (2019)
Scientific career
FieldsAstrophysics
InstitutionsUniversity of Geneva
Thesis"The kinematical properties of stars in the solar vicinity: possible relation with the galactic spiral structure."

Together with Didier Queloz in 1995 he discovered 51 Pegasi b, the first extrasolar planet orbiting a sun-like star, 51 Pegasi.[3] Because of this, Mayor and Queloz won the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star".[4]

References