It is with great sadness that we note the passing of Jacqueline Bergeron, who served as IAU General Secretary from 1991-1994. She was the second woman to hold this role.
A renowned astrophysicist, Jacqueline specialised in the spectroscopy of quasars and galaxies with active nuclei. In particular, the astronomy and astrophysics community owes her the discovery in 1985 of absorbing galaxies in the line of sight of quasars.
Jacqueline received her PhD in Paris in 1972 and was subsequently a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University, before becoming an assistant professor at Cornell and then at the California Institute of Technology. She went on to become a senior researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France.
She contributed to numerous papers on the properties of circumgalactic and intergalactic environments, surveys of quasars at high redshift, and the properties of quasars and their host galaxies. She was heavily involved in the use of large astronomical instruments to observe the distant Universe, and contributed to several key ESO, NASA and ESA programmes.
At the IAU, Jacqueline served in an impressive number of areas, but it was in her roles as Assistant General Secretary and General Secretary that she had the greatest impact on the Union. When she took office, she had several concerns that she felt needed to be addressed during her tenure in order for the IAU to remain at the forefront as a union. Change is never easy, but she persevered and succeeded in driving the IAU to take major steps towards modernity, culminating in the 1994 General Assembly (GA) in The Hague.
Jacqueline strongly advocated that the IAU maintain a leading role in promoting international cooperation and coordination in astronomy. For her, this meant increasing the Union's influence everywhere on the international scene, but especially within the ICSU (now the ISC).
Her other concern was to attract young astronomers to the Union by changing the focus of the GA meetings from Commission-related topics to broader scientific exchanges, which she felt would be much more attractive. This idea, which met with some initial resistance, eventually took hold and rejuvenated the 1994 GA in The Hague through the inclusion of six four-day Symposia.
Perhaps Jacqueline’s most prominent role was as an advocate for gender equality and inclusivity within the IAU and the wider astronomical community. She was involved in initiatives to increase the representation of women in science, particularly in leadership and decision-making positions. She fought for the first meeting on the role of women in astronomy that took place at the 1994 GA in The Hague.
Today, Jacqueline Bergeron's legacy is very much alive in the IAU: science is a priority at the GAs, which also provide ample opportunities for young astronomers to meet and network, and a special IAU Junior Membership has been introduced for them. Diversity and inclusion have become core values of the Union.
Jacqueline’s scientific achievements were recognised by her induction into the French Légion d’Honneur in 2001.
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The IAU is the international astronomical organization that brings together more than 12,000 active professional astronomers from more than 100 countries worldwide. Its mission is to promote and safeguard astronomy in all its aspects, including research, communication, education, and development, through international cooperation. The IAU also serves as the internationally recognised authority for assigning designations to celestial bodies and the surface features on them. Founded in 1919, the IAU is the world's largest professional body for astronomers.
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