Albert Bijaoui (born in Monastir in 1943) is a French

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

, former student of the Ecole Polytechnique (X 1962), renowned in

image processing An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be displayed through other media, including a pr ...

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline, James Keeler, said, astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the ...

and its application in

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

, he then prepared his PhD thesis at the

Paris Observatory The Paris Observatory (, ), a research institution of the Paris Sciences et Lettres University, is the foremost astronomical observatory of France, and one of the largest astronomical centres in the world. Its historic building is on the Left Ban ...

, under the supervision of

André Lallemand André Lallemand (; September 29, 1904 – March 24, 1978) was a French astronomer and director of the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris. Lallemand made important contributions to the development of photomultipliers for astronomical use and the "e ...

. He defended his thesis at the Université Denis Diderot (Paris VII) in March 1971. He has been a corresponding member of the

French Academy of sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

since 1997.

Biography

Trainee then Research Associate at the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

at the Paris Observatory, then at the

Nice Observatory The Nice Observatory () is an astronomical observatory located in Nice, France on the summit of Mount Gros. The observatory was founded in 1879, by the banker Raphaël Bischoffsheim. The architect was Charles Garnier (architect), Charles Garnier, ...

, he became an Astronomer at the Nice Observatory in 1972. He is Honorary Astronomer at the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur since 2015. He was Director of the Centre de Dépouillement des Clichés Astronomiques at the Institut National d'Astronomie et de Géophysique between 1973 and 1981. He was also director of the Cassiopeia laboratory (UMR CNRS/OCA) between 2004 and 2007. He experimented with André Lallemand's

electronic camera The history of the camera began even before the introduction of photography. Cameras evolved from the ''camera obscura'' through many generations of photographic technologydaguerreotypes, calotypes, dry plates, filmto the modern day with digi ...

in 1970 at the 1.93 m telescope at the

Haute-Provence Observatory The Haute-Provence Observatory (OHP, ) is an astronomical observatory in the southeast of France, about 90 km east of Avignon and 100 km north of Marseille. It was established in 1937 as a national facility for French astronomers. Ast ...

. The

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

Bijaoui was named in his honour.

Scientific work

His research work has focused on various themes related to astronomical imaging. During the preparation of his thesis, he contributed to the development of electronography with the study and interpretation of the properties of André Lallemand's electronic camera. In parallel, he was involved in its exploitation for astrophysical purposes. With the creation in 1973 of the Centre de Dépouillement des Clichés Astronomiques at Nice Observatory, he was involved in the development of new methods for the analysis of astrophysical data and in the creation of software to exploit them for the French astronomical community.Bijaoui A., Skybackground estimation and application, ''Astron. and Astrophys.'', v.84, 1980, p. 81-84 A system for the analysis of astronomical images has resulted. It will be widely disseminated in the astronomical community. With the commissioning of INAG's

Schmidt telescope Schmidt may refer to: * Schmidt (surname), including list of people and fictional characters with the surname * Schmidt (singer) (born 1990), German pop and jazz singer * Schmidt (lunar crater), a small lunar impact crater * Schmidt (Martian c ...

on the Calern plateau near

Caussols Caussols (; ; ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France. It is known for the CERGA Observatory on the Calern plateau. Demographics See also *Communes of the Alpes-Maritimes department The following is a l ...

in the

Alpes-Maritimes Alpes-Maritimes (; ; ; ) is a Departments of France, department of France located in the country's southeast corner, on the France–Italy border, Italian border and Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast. Part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'A ...

, INAG has become involved in the analysis of large images of the sky obtained with this type of instrument. The resulting exploitation of

galaxy A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...

counts led him to introduce the use of wavelet transforme and multi-scale methods in the processing of astronomical data. At the same time, it has explored the application in astronomy of many data analysis methods, such as

Bayesian analysis Thomas Bayes ( ; c. 1701 – 1761) was an English statistician, philosopher, and Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elde ...

, mathematical morphology or blind source separation methods, multi-band image analysis. His latest work concerned his involvement in the preparation of the ESA

Gaia In Greek mythology, Gaia (; , a poetic form of ('), meaning 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea (), is the personification of Earth. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenogenic—of all life. She is the mother of Uranus (S ...

astronomical mission. In particular, he has developed specific tools for the determination of the atmospheric parameters of stars from their spectra, with model grid learning. His work has been applied to several scientific fields in astrophysics, Earth observation and

biological Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, and distribution of ...

and

medical imaging Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues (physiology). Medical imaging seeks to revea ...

.Jammal G., Bijaoui A., DeQuant: a flexible multiresolution restoration framework, ''Signal Processing'', 84, 2004, p. 1049-1069

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bijaoui, Albert 1943 births Living people People from Monastir Governorate 20th-century French astronomers French astrophysicists Image processing Members of the French Academy of Sciences 21st-century French astronomers École Polytechnique alumni