Aleksander Wolszczan
born: 1946Polish astronomer who co-discovered the first confirmed planets beyond the solar system
Educated at the famous Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland, he moved to the U.S. in 1982 to work at Cornell University in Ithaca and Princeton University. Later he became a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University, where he still teaches.
Professor Wolszczan and a Canadian astronomer Dale Frail carried out observations from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico that led them to the discovery of the pulsar PSR B1257+12 in 1990.
The data analysis showed that the pulsar is orbited by two planets with a mass 4.3 and 2.8 times that of the Earth's mass. It was the first extra-solar system discovered in the Universe whose existence had been proven.
The findings were published in 1992 and 1994, and in 1996 Professor Wolszczan received the Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize from the American Astronomical Society.
Since 1994 he has also been a professor at his alma mater in Torun and a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN).
From: Good News 2005 - 2006. A publication of the American Institute of Polish Culture of Miami, Florida.