Background

Michaël Gillon has had an atypical career: he began his studies at the age of 24, after seven years in the army. “I left high school at 17 and I didn’t feel ready or motivated to go to university. I regretted it afterwards.” He quickly caught up any lost time because he finished his degree in biochemistry as well as the first cycle of studies in physics in five years.

In 2003, attracted to research, Michaël Gillon hesitated for a moment when it came to choosing a subject for his doctoral thesis. There was too much choice: Genetics? Biochemistry? Astrophysics? Finally, he chose the latter and he was offered work processing the observations of the CoRoT satellite (see : Voyage to the centre of the stars). He discovered a passion for exoplanets and research into extraterrestrial life. In March 2006, he defended his thesis on the improvement of photometry in exoplanetary transits, within the framework of the CoRoT project.

He then left on a post-doctoral trip to the observatory in Geneva, where he worked for almost three years with Michel Mayor’s group, a pioneer and leader in exoplanetary research. Now back at the University of Liège since January 2009, he is currently continuing his work on exoplanetary detection and their physiochemical characterisation. Within the context of the TRAPPIST project (see : Astrophysicists from Liège in seventh heaven), he is the scientific manager and main investigator concerning exoplanets. This project has resulted in numerous publications as well as the detection of some thirty exoplanets in transit between the end of 2010 and the middle of 2012.

Michaël Gillon has also been the initiative behind international research observing the emission (luminous flux) of a Super-Earth.