Dr. Julien H. Girard

Julien H. Girard is currently an AURA (Full) Scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland. Girard supports two flagship missions: JWST/NIRCam and Roman. He leads effort with coronagraphy / high contrast imaging since mid 2017. Member of the long term senior research staff at STScI, Girard's research focuses on constraining the formation and migration mechanisms of giant extra-solar planets in young and dusty circumstellar environments (e.g disks) through direct imaging. Girard uses high angular/contrast imaging techniques extensively, mainly in the infrared, from the ground and space.

From 2009 to 2017 Girard was Operations Staff Astronomer at ESO Chile. Adaptive Optics specialist, he was the lead Instrument Scientist of VLT/SPHERE and NACO. After completing a Master in Instrumentation Physics from the University of Utah in 2000, he obtained a 2nd Master in Astrophysics at UJF/IPAG ( Grenoble) the next year and his PhD in 2005 (UCBL/Observatoire de Lyon), validating the concept of polychromatic laser guide star on-sky.
Before ESO, Girard spent 3 years in Mexico City as a Postdoctoral Fellow at UNAM and as Assistant Professor at IPN. Enjoying public outreach, Julien is one of the ESO Photo Ambassadors.