Xavier Barcons

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Xavier Barcons in his office at ESO headquarters

Xavier Barcons (* 1959 in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat , Spain ) is a Spanish astronomer and has been Director General of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) since September 1, 2017 .

education

Xavier Barcons began his higher education at the Universidad de Barcelona with a bachelor's and master's degree in physics in 1981. At the Universidad de Cantabria he completed his doctoral thesis in astronomy in the fields of hot plasma and intergalactic medium in 1985 . He then focused on X-ray astronomy and the study of the spectra of distant quasars . Since 2002 he has been a professor at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC).

Career

In the late 1980s he founded the first Spanish X-ray astronomy group. His group has been instrumental in developing a better understanding of the nature of active galaxy nuclei and their relationship to galaxy formation and evolution .

He has served ESO in many different capacities for over 10 years, including serving as ESO Council Chair from 2012 to 2014. He was on the ESO projects Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) , among others. which was approved during his tenure as ESO Council President. He has been Director General of the European Southern Observatory since September 1st, 2017.

Private life

Xavier Barcons is married with two children.

Web links

Commons : Xavier Barcons  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b eso.org: Xavier Barcons Appointed as Next ESO Director General
  2. ↑ a b eso.org: Director General Prof. Xavier Barcons
  3. ↑ dw-online.de: Xavier Barcons takes up his position as the new ESO Director General
personal data
SURNAME Barcons, Xavier
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH L'Hospitalet de Llobregat , Spain