(L) An artist's rendition of 51 Pegasi b and the swiss astronomer Photograph:( WION Web Team )
The Swiss astronomer will be in the city on October 20 as part of a lecture series organised by the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
In a rare privilege for the public in the Southern Indian city of Chennai, they would be able to listen to a Nobel laureate elaborate on his work and the search for life in the universe. Didier Patrick Queloz, the Swiss astronomer who won the Nobel Prize for discovering an extrasolar planet orbiting a sun-like star, would be in the city on October 20 as part of a lecture series organised by the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M).
Didier Queloz was born in Switzerland and studied at the University of Geneva, where he also received a doctorate in 1995. In the same year, Queloz and his supervisor Michel Mayor announced the first discovery of a planet outside our solar system, an exoplanet, orbiting a solar-type star in our home galaxy, the Milky Way.
Using custom-made instruments, they were able to see planet ’51 Pegasi b’, in the Pegasus constellation and this work earned them the Nobel Prize in 2019. Since then, over 4,000 exoplanets have since been found in the Milky Way. Eventually, such studies may find an answer to the eternal question of whether other life exists out there.
Since 2008, Queloz has been a professor at the University of Geneva and since 2012 at the University of Cambridge as well.
The address by Didier Queloz will be the inaugural lecture of the ‘Subra Suresh Distinguished Lecture series’ launched by IIT Madras. This lecture series was launched in honour of one of its most illustrious alumni of IIT Madras – Professor Subra Suresh, a distinguished alumnus awardee (1997) and currently president and a distinguished university professor at the prestigious Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
This series will feature lectures by Nobel laureates and globally-renowned speakers from various walks of life. They will also deliver a science talk which will be open to all.
#Chennai -Here’s an opportunity to listen to
2019 #NobelPrize winner Didier Queloz, the #Swiss #astronomer ,who discovered a #planet outside our solar system
Courtesy @iitmadras ,he’ll deliver a lecture on 20th #october -Exoplanets & the Search for Life in the Universe
Link? pic.twitter.com/ytpwWTsc8C
Highlighting the importance of this initiative, Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula, dean, alumni and corporate relations, IIT Madras, said, “ This series will bring the best speakers from all over the world to India, with the motivation to bring a broad perspective of science to researchers and laypeople.”
Prof. Raghunathan Rengaswamy, Dean, Global Engagement, IIT Madras, added that this initiative would bring world-renowned researchers and intellectuals in several fields to the IIT Madras campus.
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