Andrzej Udalski

Andrzej Udalski (born 22 January 1957 in Łódź, Poland) is a Polish astronomer and astrophysicist, and director of the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw. He is also head of the Department of Observational Astrophysics at Astronomical Observatory, the head and project manager of the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, and editor of the quarterly journal Acta Astronomica.

Education

He graduated from the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw in 1980. In that same year, he was employed at the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw. He received his Ph.D. in 1988 and then completed a two-year Postdoctoral Research Associate at York University in Toronto, Canada.

Contribution to astronomy

He has authored or co-authored nearly 400 scientific papers. In 1996, he was honored by the Prime Minister for outstanding scientific achievements. In 2002, he won the prize of the Foundation for Polish Science (the so-called "Polish Nobel"). In 2009, he received a 2.5 million Euro grant from the program Ideas of the European Research Council that aims to support innovative research projects.