Georges Meynet

Stay at the IAC: 04/07/2014 to 01/08/2014

Research line: Stellar and Interstellar Physics

Prof. Meynet gave a Severo Ochoa seminar at the IAC on July 10th 2014, entitled Massive star evolution along the cosmic history: from first stars to the birth of the Solar System.

Currently Dr. Meynet is full professor at the Astronomy Department (Geneva Observatory) of the University of Geneva (Switzerland).

Georges Meynet graduated in Lausanne (Federal Polytechnical School) in 1984 (physics) and then he started his Pd.D. in Geneva working on the nucleosynthesis associated to the advanced phases of massive star evolution under the supervison of Prof. André Maeder. After a post doc in the group of Marcel Arnould at ULB (Bruxelles) in nuclear astrophysics, Georges Meynet came back to Geneva where, after a few years as scientific collaborator, he became « Maître d’enseignement et de recherche ». Since 2007, he is full professor at the department of astronomy of the Geneva University.

His main interests lie in the study of stellar physics, in particular in the study of the impact of rotation on the evolution of massive stars. He is also interested instellar populations in galaxies, starbursts, stellar nucleosynthesis, chemical evolution of galaxies, progenitors of core collapse supernovae and Gamma Ray Bursts, origin of the isotopic anomalies in galactic cosmic rays and in meteorites, gamma ray line astrophysics, effects of WIMPS in stars, effects of change with time of physical constants.

The visit by Georges Meynet to the IAC covers projects related to the study of massive stars. He will collaborate with Dr. Artemio Herrero in the comparison of evolutionary models of massive stars with the properties derived from the analysis of stellar spectra. Emphasis will be placed on three aspects:
- the poorly known evolutionary phases and the links between them and all other phases,
- the impact of metallicity,
- the impact of rotation, mass loss and pulsation.