Pierre Kaufmann

He studied physics at Mackenzie Presbyterian University,[1] starting in 1957,[2] and graduating in 1961,[3] before going to Leiden University and Groningen University.[1]

He was the principal researcher of the Solar Submillimeter Telescope and Solar-T, and started the Atmospheric Science program at the Brazilian Antarctic Program. He founded research into radio astronomy, spatial geodesy, and solar physics in Brazil.[1] He helped install the first radio telescope in Brazil in 1962,[2] at the Professor Aristóteles Orsini Planetarium, but the antenna was subsequently destroyed by cows. He was funded by FAPESP is its first year of operation, to work on radio star scintillation.[3] He also helped construct radio telescopes in Campos do Jordão and at Itapetinga Radio Observatory.[3]

He was a professor at the Mackenzie Presbyterian University[1] since 1998,[4] where he was coordinator for the Center for Radio Astronomy and Astrophysics,[3] and a senior researcher at the Centre for Semiconductor Components (Portuguese: Centro de Componentes Semicondutores)[1] at UNICAMP, as well as an associate professor at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo. He published over 200 papers, and supervised 17 Masters students, 7 PhD students, and 8 postdocs.[3]

He was also the president of the URSI Brazilian National Committee between 1989 and 2009.[1] He was a member of the IAU,[5] COSPAR,[1] the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (since 1987),[4] and the Brazilian Astronomical Society.[3] He was an associate member of the Royal Astronomical Society.[4]

Kaufman was born in 1938.[5] He grew up on a farm in Aix-en-Provence, south France,[2] and became interested in astronomy as a child.[3] His family moved to Brazil in 1941, fleeing World War II.[2] He joined the Association of Amateur Astronomers as a teenager, in 1954.[3] He had a brother.[2]

He died in São Paulo[2] on 17 February 2017,[1] aged 78.[3]