LESIA profile

 Who are we ?

The LESIA (Laboratory of Space Studies and Instrumentation in Astrophysics) is one of the five Scientific Departments of the Observatory of Paris. It is also a CNRS Laboratory (mixed Reasearh Unit of CNRS – UMR 8109). LESIA is associated with the University Pierre Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UFR de Physique 925, Institut de la Vision) and with the University Paris-Diderot-Paris 7 (UFR de Physique et UFR Sciences de la Terre, de l’Environnement et des Planètes - STEP).

LESIA is one of the largest French laboratories of research in astrophysics (approximately 12% of the discipline). In April 2013, the laboratory counted 238 staff including 133 permanent.

The permanent staff is composed of:
 69 Researchers/Scientists of CNRS, the CNAP or members of Universities;
 64 Engineers/Technicians/Administrators of CNRS or members of Universities.

 Organisation of the laboratory

A management team supervises the laboratory :

• Pierre Drossart, director;
• Didier Tiphène, deputy-director in charge of the technical coordination of the laboratory, the continuing education and the buildings ;
• Carine Briand, deputy-director in charge of relations with universities and agencies (ESA, Europe, etc.) and of the follow-up of students and PhDs;
• Claudine Colon, administrator of the laboratory, holds the position of general secretary and personnel manager.

The organisation of the personnel in poles allows teams coordination and interface with the directors:

Five scientific poles :

• Star (coordination: Eric Michel)
• High Angular Resolution and Astrophysics (coordination: Gérard Rousset)
• Plasmas Physics (coordination: Filippo Pantellini)
• Solar Physics (coordination: Nicole Vilmer)
• Planetology (coordination: Thierry Fouchet)

Three technical poles:

• Computing (coordination: Sylviane Chaintreuil)
• Engineering (coordination: Régis Schmidt)
• Services (coordination: Agnès Fave).

The responsibility for Continuing Education – an important part of the Human Resources management – has been delegated to Jérôme Parisot.

Emmanuel Grolleau, who is also in charge of databases, supervises the global computing of the laboratory.

A special agent, Olivier Dupuis, coordinates health and Safety service, under the responsibility of the director.

• to the organisation chart of the LESIA

 Main Objectives and Research themes

LESIA’s primary role:

• The design and implementation of scientific instrumentation in space and on the ground;
• Analysis and interpretation of scientific observations made by use of the produced instruments;
• Development of advanced techniques applied in ground-based instruments and in space instruments.

LESIA is at the forefront of scientific advances in all areas where it is involved thanks to: the scientific results obtained from the instrumentation that was designed and produced within the laboratory, in the different research areas of the centre; the use of large national and international funding; the developed simulations and theoretical work.

LESIA’s scientific activities are classified in five main themes (Star, High Angular Resolution and Astrophysics, Planetology, Plasma Physics and Solar Physics), where it also focuses on fifteen major astrophysical topics, as well as on ten technical areas.

LESIA is the laboratory in charge of the coordination of the "Laboratoire d’Excellence" ESEP (Space Exploration of Planetary Environments), a network of nine laboratories working on space thematics.

With its data processing center LEOPARD, the laboratory is also heavily involved in many aspects of technics and technologies of information, for the development of instrumental methods and for data analysis.

Finally, LESIA has many assignments within the astrophysics community (service tasks for the community, institutional responsibilities, teaching) and is largely involved in missions for the spread of scientific culture.