Prof. Serge Koutchmy

Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (I.A.P), CNRS

•  Career

1967 Assistant Paris Observatory 1968 Research fellowship Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 1978 Permanent position at CNRS (tenure/charge de recherche) 1992- now Directeur de Recherche (DR) at the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS and UPMC(France)   Fellowship/Awards: 1976-78 AFGL/Sacramento Peak Observatory-NM( USA ) 1986-88 Senior Research Associate at NSO/SacPeak Observatory

•  Research Contributions

* Observed 15 Total Solar Eclipses at ground, over seas, using aircrafts (including the Supersonic Concorde 001) and in space; models of F-corona and of coronal structures; spectra and polarization analysis; * Developed several solar IR experiments at Pic du Midi Observatory 1st absolute measurements of solar intensities at 18 to 24 microns- 1968; 1st sunspot photometry at 3.75 microns; * Developed IR photometry at the Sacramento-Peak Obs. VTT (1977); * Developed a prominence magnetograph on the largest existing coronagraph- 53 cm aperture- of the USSR Kislovodsk High Altitude Observatory (1980-82)and an IR solar photometer at the Crimean Observatory (1974-76); * P.I. of the space-borne experiment 'Night Sky Imaging' for the flight of the 1st French Spationaute on Saliout 7 (1982); co-I of PIRAMIG; * Developed the 1st mirror coronagraph at NSO/SP (1987); 1st optical coronal image ever made with a mirror coronagraph; * Co-I of the C2/Lasco coronagraph of SoHO (1988); design of the SWATH space-borne mirror coronagraph at NASA (1992); * P.I. of the CFHT-91 eclipse coronal experiment on Mauna-Kea to point the largest optical telescope ever used toward the Sun; best resolution ever achieved of an image of the W-L corona; movie of a coronal plasmoïd; * Performed 1st observations of SXR polar jet-lets on Yohkoh-96 at ISAS- Japan ; * Performed 1st measurements of the solar prolateness at NSO/Sacramento- Peak Observatory (1997-98) using coronagraphs and the VTT (DST); * co-I on the Solar Probe coronal exp-t of NASA (2000), of the Lyot proposal of CNES (2004)and of the ASPICS proposal(artificial eclipses in Space). * P.I. of several cooperative projects (2000-2006) to develop Astronomical facilities in Iran , Russia , Egypte and Angola . * Main adviser (directeur de these) of more then 10 PhDs

•  International Audience

Medal of the USSR Space Agency (1982) and the French Space Agency CNES (1983); Medal Janssen, French Academy of Sciences (1993); Price Janssen of the French Astronomical Society (1998); elected member of the Marquis "Who'sWho in the Word", 20 th edition (2003) for "outstanding achievements in his field" and elected member of the Board (2004).

•  Publications

  321 scientific papers selected from 1967 to now in NASA Astrophysics Data System; 100 more papers and many eclipse images published.   Books "Total Eclipses", 1998, Masson Ed. 300p (in French); re-edited and translated in English at Springer-Praxis Series in Astron. (1999), etc. Participation as invited contributor and/or chairman in the writting of 7 books, starting with the Illust. Solar Glossary-Riedel Pub. (1978).   Five selected papers over 30 years "Morphological Particularities of the Solar Corona " (1969) in Astrophys. Letters, 3, 215-220 ; "Study of the June 30, 1973 trans-polar coronal hole" (1975) in Solar Phys. 51, 399-410 ; "Short Periods coronal oscillations: observations and interpretation"(1983)in Astr. Astrophys. 120, 185-191 ; "Space-borne Coronagraphy" (1988) in Space Science Review, 47, 95-143 ; "Coronal Streamers" (2000), in "The Encycl. of Astron. Astrophys." 5 vol.,Institute of Physics Pub. England

•  Projets 2005-2010 

Poursuivre i/ les projets de coopération avec l'Iran l'Egypte et l'Angola (y compris la direction de thèse d'élèves) et la participation aux expériences spatiales engagées; ii/ les projets destinés à la collaboration amateurs-professionnels et en direction de l'Enseignement secondaire (série de CDRom interactifs) ; iii/ quelques observations avec des élèves thésitifs aux Canaries, au Pic du Midi, à Sacramento Peak et à l'occasion de l'éclipse de 2006 ; IV/ les réflexions sur des expériences spatiales relatives aux relations Soleil-Terre ainsi que sur les aspects historico-mythologiques de ces relations.