Jean Pierre Lasota-Hirszowicz

Jean-Pierre Lasota-Hirszowicz was a professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center (CAMK) in Warsaw.

He received his doctoral degree in 1971 at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at Warsaw University and the title of Professor of Physical Science in 2006.

For many years, Prof. Lasota-Hirszowicz was strongly involved in French astrophysical community and institutions. He was a director of the joint French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Observatoire de Paris Department of Relativistic Astrophysics and Cosmology (1988-1998), as well as member of the French National Committee of Scientific Research (1991-1995), a scientific advisor to the President/Director of the CNRS (2002-2012), and chairman of the Scientific Committee of the CNRS Interdisciplinary Program ‘Astroparticules’ (2004-2008). Since 2009 he was Directeur de Recherche Emérite at the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris.

In early, as well as later stages of his career was a CAMK researcher, he began working there in 1970, being the deputy director in 1972-1974, and working as Professor since 2016.

Prof. Lasota-Hirszowicz contributed to the development of Virgo project at its beginnings, being a member of the committees supervising the construction and operation of Virgo and European Gravitational Observatory (EGO).

He was a reviewer of scientific articles (Acta Astronomica, A&A, ApJ, Classical Quantum Gravity, MNRAS, Nature, and Science) as well as an expert evaluator of scientific proposals for many funding agencies (i.a. CNRS, French Research Ministry, European Commission, Polish Science Foundation, Polish NCN, National Research Foundation of South Africa, Austrian Science Foundation, Nordita, and many more). He was also an editor of ‘Journal of Instrumentation’ (2011-2017).

The link to his publications included in the service NASA ADS can be found here.

Research interests

• relativistic astrophysics,
• accretion discs,
• compact objects,
• binary systems,
• relativistic jets,
• general relativity.

Grants / Scientific Projects

• "Structure and evolution of ultra-luminous astrophysical X-ray sources" (2016-2019). Function: PI. Funding information: OPUS project, NCN (2015/19/B/ST9/01099).

Awards / Honors

• Grand Prix Felix Robin of the French Physical Society (2012).
• Rosenblum Memorial Lecture at the Racah Physics Institute, Hebrew University, Jerusalem (2003).
• Member of an International Advisory Committee of the R.F. Kennedy Human Rights Award (1985-2000).

Promotion of science

• Articles (e.g. in Polish magazine Urania, but not only – see "Unmasking black holes", Scientific American , 280, no 5, p. 40, 1999),
• Books (e.g. "Droga do czarnych dziur" Copernicus Center Press, 2022, "Kłopoty z Eureką. O co kłócą się fizycy?" with K. Głowacka, Copernicus Center Press, 2020, both in Polish),
• Lectures (Les Trous noirs from 2009, in French),
• Podcasts (episodes 11, 28, and 93, at Radio Naukowe, in Polish),
• TV (episodes 111, 143, and 144 at Astronarium, in Polish).