Julien Girard

short bio


Who am I?

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I am an instrumentation physicist/astronomer 
currently working as Operations Staff Astronomer at ESO 
spending my time between Santiago de Chile and Paranal Observatory.


Previously I worked three years in Mexico City: first as a Postdoctoral Fellow at UNAM’s Institute of Astronomy and then as a Professor at the Escuela Superior de Física y Matemática (ESFM), part of Instituto Politecnico Nacional (IPN). I mainly work in the field of optical/IR astronomical instrumentation, particularly in Adaptive Optics (AO. I obtained my PhD in 2005 on the on-sky validation of the polychromatic laser guide star concept, which would allow visible AO observations with 100% sky coverage. I also have participated to various observations campaigns and have been involved in the definition of robotic telescope systems.