Roger-Maurice Bonnet 

for his authoritative and wide-ranging support of the space sciences putting Europe at the forefront of Solar System exploration

Professor Roger-Maurice Bonnet is presently Director of the Scientific Programme of the European Space Agency.  He is also a Director of Research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and was Director of the Laboratory for Stellar and Planetary Physics at Verrières-le-Buisson from January 1969 until March 1983.

He was born on 23 December 1937 and graduated from the University of Paris, where he obtained his doctorate on UV spectroscopy and imaging of the Sun in 1968.  His thesis advisors were Alfred Kastler (Chairman, Nobel Prize winner), J. E. Blamont (Director), J.C. Pecker and E. Schatzman (advisors).  He started his research in observing in the ultraviolet, the spectrum and the disc of the Sun from space-borne instruments which he himself designed.

Professor Bonnet has been Director of the ESA Science Programme since May 1983 and has established the first Long Term Plan for Space Science called “Space Science – Horizon 2000”.  This Plan and its unique missions have put European space science at the leading edge in several areas of space astronomy and solar system exploration. Through his activities, Professor Bonnet has always worked to increase international cooperation in space research, in particular in Europe.

He is the author of more than 100 scientific articles and 50 publications, articles and books aimed at the general public.  He is a Faculty Professor at Liège University.

Professor Bonnet is an Officer of the Légion d’Honneur, a member of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Academia Europaea and the International Academy of Astronautics.