The Fizeau Interferometry Prize

Call for nominations for the Fizeau Lifetime Achievement Award for 2020

The Fizeau and Michelson prizes for 2020 will be awarded during the SPIE conference, on Friday 19 June 2020. Nominations are requested for 30 April 2020. See attached rules.

Description of the Fizeau Prize

The Fizeau and Michelson Prizes are two prizes in Astronomical Interferometry, sponsored by the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur and the Lowell Observatory. The two prizes are similar but complementary, with the Fizeau Prize emphasizing innovative technical and theoretical work, and the Michelson Prize emphasizing application of interferometry to astrophysical research. The Prizes were first created in 2010 by the then-IAU Commission 54 for Optical and Infrared Interferometry, OCA, and the Mt. Wilson Institute (MWI). In 2018 Lowell Observatory took over stewardship of the Michelson Prize.

The purpose of the Fizeau Prize is to provide recognition within the interferometry community, as well as in the broader science community, of theoretical and technical progress and developments in the rapidly growing field of optical interferometry, and to assist the OCA with engaging the community in promoting the future of optical interferometry. The Prize recognizes outstanding achievement in fundamentals and implementation of optical interferometry. The Prize may be given for significant theoretical and technical innovations, for instrument design and deployment, including programmatic and management accomplishments, for teaching, and for related public service. It recognizes a substantial history of contributions and international leadership as evidenced by one or more publications, advancement of knowledge, reputation, procurement and management of resources, and accomplishments of former students.

The Fizeau Prize will consist of a certificate of award, with a statement of the contributions and their significance, accompanied by a cash prize determined by the OCA. The Fizeau Prize for Contributions to Astronomical Optical Interferometry is jointly sponsored by the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (OCA) and the Lowell Observatory.

The OCA includes research departments that have a long and continuing history of innovative contributions to the development of optical interferometry.

A description of the Prize guidelines could be found here: Fizeau Prize Rules

Previous laureates

2022: Theo TEN BRUMMELAAR

The Joint Fizeau-Michelson Prize Committee awards the 2022 Fizeau Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Theo ten Brummelaar for his leadership and long-term efforts in forwarding the technology and practice of astronomical optical interferometry, as evidenced by his central role in the optical, computational, and scientific development of the CHARA Array. Dr. ten Brummelaar directed ongoing array updates with the development of the telescope adaptive optics systems and sustained instrumentation development in the beam combining laboratory. Creating and fostering the international CHARA Consortium, he has greatly enriched the technical and scientific programs of the CHARA Array, and directed initiatives to increase the user community to scientists from around the world.

2020: Guy PERRIN

The Joint Fizeau-Michelson Prize Committee awards the 2022 Fizeau Lifetime Achievement Award to Guy Perrin for his accomplishments in theory and technology of optical interferometry, his impressive achievements in fundamentals and implementation of advanced instrument methods, and for his broad support to the interferometry community over more than two decades.

Guy Perrin entered the world of optical interferometry when, as a student, he worked with the group that demonstrated the power of single-mode fibers for interferometric measurement (Coudé du Foresto, Mariotti and Ridgway). And he undertook the challenge of evolving the FLUOR concept into the first efficient precision interferometry machine. Early examples are the exquisite precision of his interferometric measurements of giant stars which led to the widely cited extension of the effective temperature scale of giants.

With this, Guy carried out pioneering work in providing a solid theoretical framework for singlemode interferometry (dispersion, piston effects, photon noise, field of view…). He embarked on highly original paths with the OHANA program and then with the FIRST concept.

2018: Wesley TRAUB

The Joint Fizeau-Michelson Prize Committee awards the 2018 Fizeau Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Wesley A. Traub for his broad and crucial contributions to the development of the field of Optical Interferometry during his career at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr Traub led the development of the Infrared Optical Telescope Array (IOTA) and, as Chief Scientist for NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program, he has overseen the efforts related to Space Interferometry Mission, Keck and Large Binocular Telescope Interferometers, and also became JPL Project Scientist for the WFIRST mission.

2014: Christoph Leinert and William Tango

The Fizeau Lifetime Contributions Prize for 2014 is awarded to Dr. William Tango for his long-term efforts in forwarding the theory, technology and practice of optical interferometry. This is most clearly demonstrated in the publication of the seminal paper on interferometry in 1980, along with many other original works on a broad range of topics in the field. Dr. Tango has been involved in the construction & operation of several major ground based instruments, including most recently the Sydney University Stellar Interfereometer (SUSI). The students he has mentored have themselves gone on to positions of leadership in this field, extending even further his wide-ranging influence on optical interferometry.

The Fizeau Investigator Prize for 2014 is awarded to Professor Christoph Leinert for his considerable scientific achivements throughout his career, and specifically for his role as Principal Investigator for the MIDI instrument on the VLTI. His noteworthy career connects to a recurring theme of high angular resolution astronomy, which ultimately led him to long-baseline interferometry at the VLTI. The remarkable success of MIDI can be directly connected to the scientific and technical leadership of Professor Leinert, resulting in breakthroughs in our understanding of active galactic nuclei, protoplanetary disks, and circumstellar envelopes of asymptotic giant branch stars ; this leadership has also been instrumental in significantly expanding the interferometry user community. Professor Leinert’s success with the VLTI is inspiring the next generation of researchers and instrumentation to build on these successes.

2012 : Charles Townes.

The Fizeau Prize for 2012 is awarded for lifetime achievement to Professor Charles Hard Townes for his long-term commitment to and support of optical interferometry, especially in the mid-infrared, as evidenced by his work on the McMath prototype and Berkeley Infrared Spatial Interferometers. Professor Townes' development of heterodyne techniques, high-spectral resolution and closure phases at the ISI has produced dozens of highly cited and transformative papers in the studies of dust production and time-evolution of evolved stars. Further, Professor Townes' support and mentoring of 27 doctoral students and dozens of postdoctoral and junior colleagues, many of whom are well-established interferometrists and active researchers today, will leave an enduring legacy for the field of optical/infrared interferometry.

2010 : Antoine Labeyrie

The Fizeau Prize for 2010 is awarded for lifetime achievement to Professor Antoine Labeyrie for his invention of speckle interferometry, the development of the I2T and GI2T interferometers, and contributions to the development and implementation of the VLTI. Prof. Labeyrie's innovative genius challenges conventional wisdom with ideas such as the hypertelescope, laser-trapped space mirrors, and pupil densification; his visionary work has meant much to the community, and has been a forceful reminder that our scientific ambitions are limited only by our imaginations.