Claude Catala

Doctor of State in astrophysics, astronomer, Claude Catala was president of the Paris Observatory - PSL from 2011 to 2020. Previously, he was deputy director of the Toulouse astrophysics laboratory within the Midi-Pyrenees Observatory (OMP) from 1999 to 2001 and chaired the national stellar physics program at INSU between 1999 and 2003. Between 2005 and 2011, he was scientific advisor on astronomy issues at MENESR. In charge of major international space projects since 1993, Claude Catala participated in the CoRoT mission on the search for exoplanets and the study of the internal structure of stars, then scientific manager of the PLATO space mission from 2007 to 2012. He was rewarded for his research by the Deslandres prize in 2008 and by the SF2A prize in 1990.