Pierre Cox | |
---|---|
Nationality | French |
Known for | Astronomy |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Astronomy |
Institutions | Former Director of ALMA; Institut de radioastronomie millimétrique; Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale |
Pierre Cox is a French astronomer. Born in Paris to a Dutch composer father and a Belgian pianist mother, he led a musically-oriented childhood from which he rebelled at age 17 to study physics at the Université de Paris-Sud.[1] He is known for his research in the area of millimeter and infrared observations of star-forming regions, evolved stars, and high-redshift galaxies. He has published over 250 refereed papers with more than 22,000 citations in total.[2] Cox is currently a Director of Research (Directeur de Recherche) (DR1) at CNRS, working at the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris. From 2013 - 2018,[3] Cox was the Director of ALMA,[4] a position requiring coordinating the efforts of many countries that Cox likened to "being the Secretary General of United Nations".[5] He was previously the Director of the Institut de radioastronomie millimétrique from 2006 through 2013. Prior to IRAM, he had been an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy,[6] the Marseille Observatory, and then the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale, an observatory of the CNRS at the Université de Paris-Sud in Orsay.[7] Pierre's hobbies including drawing and playing piano. He speaks five languages fluently.[8]