The Chesneau Prize is awarded every two years to a bright PhD student in the field of High Angular Resolution Astronomy.

It was established in 2015 by the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur and the European Southern Observatory in memory of Olivier Chesneau.
Next prize will be awarded in 2021, and candidates having obtained their PhD degree in 2019 and 2020 can be nominated (no self-nomination).

The award committee is constituted of four members :

The Director of the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur,or his/her representative

The Director of the Laboratory Lagrange,or his/her representative

The ESO Director for Science,or his/her representative

The Director of the CNRS/INSU
“Action Spécifique sur la Haute Résolution Angulaire” (ASHRA), or his/her representative

The committee organizes its work completely independently; in particular, it may request outside opinions if necessary. Deliberations are kept confidential. The committee may decide to share the prize between two nominees or to award no prize, based on the quality of the nominations. The decisions of the committee are final.

Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur and Laboratoire Lagrange will provide a monetary award of 1000€, an award certificate, and an invitation to give a prize lecture at the Observatory. A prize ceremony will be held in Nice on 11 May 2021. ESO will publicly announce the winner to enhance the visibility of the prize-winning work and will also invite them to present their work at the ESO Headquarters in Garching, Germany.

ESO will announce widely the prize winner to enhance visibility of the prize-winning work and will invite the prize winner to present his/her work at its Headquarters in Garching.

Application is open to every PhD student in high-angular-resolution astronomy.