Georges Meylan was born on July 31, 1950, in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he attended primary school.  He then started his higher education with the Special Mathematics Course at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne - EPFL), followed by a master of mathematical sciences, specializing in pure mathematics and fundamental research, at the University of Lausanne.  

He went to the University of Geneva for post-graduate studies in physics, where he obtained a master in astrophysics and astronomy.  In the same institution, in 1985, he completed his PhD thesis, under the leadership of Michel Mayor, a study devoted to the dynamical study of nearby stellar systems, called globular clusters, through the use of high-quality stellar radial velocities.

 

Georges Meylan benefited from two postdoctoral positions, first, at the Astronomy Department of the University of California at Berkeley, CA, USA, and, second, in the Scientific Group at the Headquarters of the European Southern observatory in Munich, Germany.  He then occupied positions as senior astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, in Baltimore, MD, USA and at the Headquarters of the European Southern Observatory in Munich, Germany.   From 1999 to 2012, he was a Visiting Associate in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, CA, USA. 

 

From 2004 to 2015, Georges Meylan was a professor of Astrophysics and Cosmology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, and, simultaneously, the first director of the EPFL Laboratory of Astrophysics.  Since September 2015, he is a professor emeritus at EPFL, still active in research and in teaching, both at EPFL and at the University of Lausanne.  

 

Professor of astrophysics, Georges Meylan was the director (2004-2015) of the Laboratory of Astrophysics of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).  He was also (1999-2012), associate visitor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, USA. Research in observational cosmology. Teaching general physics and astrophysics at the Bachelor level and cosmology at the Master level. During his EPFL directorship, he initiated the long-term cosmological program COSMOGRAIL and initiated the participation of Switzerland in the EUCLID satellite mission and the SKA project.  

Georges Meylan was the chairman (2006-2013) of the Swiss Commission for Astronomy (SCFA), a body of the Swiss Academy of Sciences, via the platform Mathematics, Astronomy, Physics (MAP). He was also the Swiss Scientific Delegate (2006-2013) to the Council of the European Southern Observatory (ESO).  He chaired (2016-2023) the Board of Trustees the International Space Science Institute (ISSI Bern). He was a member (2016-2023) of the Council of the European Astronomical Society. He is a member of Academia Europaea.  

See "Meylan, Georges" on the ADS at  https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/search/fq=%7B!type%3Daqp%20v%3D%24fq_database%7D&fq_database=(database%3Aastronomy%20OR%20database%3Aphysics)&q=Meylan%2C%20Georges&sort=date%20desc%2C%20bibcode%20desc&p_=0