GILLON Michaël
Professeur
Directeur de recherche FNRS & Fonds assoc.
Faculté des Sciences
Département d'astrophysique, géophysique et océanographie (AGO)
Exoplanets in Transit: Identification and Characterization
Faculté des Sciences
Département d'astrophysique, géophysique et océanographie (AGO)
Astrobiology
- ULiège address
-
Bât. B5C ExoTIC
Quartier Agora
Allée du six Août 19c
4000 Liège 1
Belgique
- ULiège phone number
- +32 4 3669743
- ULiège Fax
- +32 4 3669711
-
Captcha : Put the image in the right direction
- Conseil sectoriel à la recherche et à la valorisation
- Sciences et Techniques
- Personal website (s)
- ASTROBIOLOGY Research Unit
- Personal website (s)
- SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars)
- Personal website (s)
- TRAPPIST - TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope
Biography
Michaël Gillon holds a master's degree in biochemistry and a master's degree and a PhD in astrophysics. He completed his formation with a post-doc at the Geneva Observatory, joining Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz team, pioneers and leaders in exoplanet research. Back at the University of Liège since January 2009, he is now Senior Research Associate at the FNRS (Belgian national fund for scientific research) and continues his work on the detection of exoplanets and their physicochemical characterization.
Michaël Gillon is the scientific leader of the exoplanets part of the TRAPPIST project, which has participated to the detection of more than one hundred transiting exoplanets, including the now famous exoplanetary system TRAPPIST-1, revealed to the public on 22 February 2017 during an international press conference at NASA headquarters and through a publication in the scientific journal Nature.
In 2007, Michaël Gillon performed the first detection of the transit of an exoplanet similar to Neptune in terms of mass and radius. In 2010, he was the principal investigator of the project that made the first measurement of the thermal emission of a "super-Earth". Since 2012, he has been developing and leading the SPECULOOS project that targets nearby ultra-cold red dwarfs to detect potentially habitable planets well-suited for detailed atmospheric studies, including the search for chemical traces of life. He is also involved -as executive Board member- in the CHEOPS space mission, which consists in a small space telescope aiming to study in more detail already known transiting planets.
Research field
- Astronomie
- Astrophysique
Duties or mandates
- Senior Research Associate - FNRS
Scientific distinctions
- Francqui Prize (2021)
- NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (2018)
- NASA Group Achievement Award (2018)
- Balzan Prize for the Sun's Planetary System and Exoplanets (2017)
- Paul and Marie Stroobant Prize in Observational Astronomy, Royal Belgium Academy of Science (2011)
- Walter Verly and Marcel Florkin Prizes, University of Liège (2002)
ULiège Course
Introduction to exoplanetology, 20h Th, 10h Pr, ABSIL Olivier, GILLON Michaël
Related content
- Exoplanets and life in the Universe (FRENCH)
- Trappist-1b and c: atmospheres or not?
- TRAPPIST and SPECULOOS observatories help discover LP791-18d, an exo-Earth potentially riddled with volcanoes
- Michaël Gillon élu "Wallon de l'année 2021"
- TRAPPIST-1 is five years old
- ULiège astronomers contribute to the discovery of a new exotic world
- JWST: an ambitious scientific space mission in which the University of Liege is participating
- Le Francqui pour les exoplanètes
- The prestigious Francqui Prize 2021 awarded to Michaël Gillon for his revolutionary discoveries in astronomy
- The seven rocky planets of TRAPPIST-1 seem to have very similar compositions
- SPECULOOS telescopes pinpoint a rare eclipsing binary brown dwarf
- ULiège takes part in the CHEOPS mission
- TOI-270 and its 3 worlds: an interesting new target in the study of exoplanets
- Michaël Gillon and the "TRAPPIST-1 science team" awarded by the NASA
- The SPECULOOS South observatory on the hunt for habitable exoplanets
- ULiège TRAPPIST telescopes among TESS' ground supports
- What have we learned about TRAPPIST-1 during this last year?
- TRAPPIST-1 is gradually emerging
- Io, Europa’s young brother is installed
- Michaël Gillon
- De l’eau sur les planètes du système TRAPPIST-1 ?
- The unique architecture of TRAPPIST-1
- The seven wonders of TRAPPIST-1
- A trio of Earth size planets at 40 light years
- The exoplanets orbiting the TRAPPIST-1 star deliver new secrets
- Two ULiège astrophysicists supported by the European Research Council to detect exoplanets comparable to the Earth
- Liège astrophysicists in seventh heaven