Simon Lilly – Interdisciplinary Scientist, ETH Zurich
Interdisciplinary Scientist, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich)
Simon Lilly was elected as Full Professor of Experimental Astrophysics in February 2002. Simon's research work focuses on studying the formation and evolution of galaxies over the whole cosmic history of the Universe. Over his career, Simon has successfully developed and applied observational techniques to detect and study some of the most distant galaxies known, and has carried out a number of systematic surveys of the very distant Universe. Born in 1959, Simon Lilly obtained his PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 1984 and carried out postdoctoral research at Princeton University.
Simon Lilly was subsequently appointed to faculty positions at the University of Hawaii (1985) and the University of Toronto (1990). Immediately prior to his appointment to the ETH, Simon Lilly served as the Director General of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics of the National Research Council of Canada. Simon's research achievements have been recognized by numerous awards and honors, including his election as Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2014 and the 2017 award of the Herschel Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. Notable research highlights have included the first measurement of the changes of the overall star-formation rate of the Universe over cosmic time and the development of a new "reverse engineering" approach to understanding the evolution of the galaxy population. Since returning to Europe in 2002, he has been a member of numerous European Boards and Advisory Committees that have guided the development of ESO and ESA, co-ordinated the production of the first decadal Swiss "Roadmap for Astronomy and Astrophysics" in 2007, and served for eight years on the Research Council of the Swiss National Research Council.
Simon Lilly played a major role in the early development of NASA's current flagship space astronomy mission, the James Webb Space Telescope, which will be launched in 2019, and currently serves as an Interdisciplinary Scientist on the Flight Science Working Group of that mission.