Jean-Claude Pecker

Jean-Claude Pecker (10 May 1923 – 20 February 2020) was a French astronomer, astrophysicist and author, member of the French Academy of Sciences and director of the Nice Observatory. He served as the secretary-general of the International Astronomical Union from 1964 to 1967. Pecker was the President of the Société astronomique de France (SAF), the French amateur astronomical society, from 1973–1976. He was awarded the Prix Jules Janssen by the French Astronomical Society in 1967. A minor planet (1629 Pecker) is named after him. and was the president of the Association française pour l'information scientifique (AFIS), a skeptical organisation which promotes scientific enquiry in the face of quackery and obscurantism.

Early life Jean-Claude Pecker was born 10 May 1923, in Reims, to Victor-Noël Pecker and Nelly Catherine née Hermann (a teacher of Philosophy and Literature), in the department of Marne, France. The grandson of Joseph Hermann, rabbi of Valenciennes and later Reims, Pecker was born in his maternal grandparents' house, moving later to Bordeaux. In the summer of 1941 they moved to the Hermann house in Paris because of anti-Jewish restrictions placed on his parents during the Vichy regime. In May 1944 both his parents were transported to Auschwitz where they died, while his grandmother, absent during the raid, was hidden by neighbour Ida Barrett who was later designated by the state of Israel as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for her actions to conceal the old lady until the liberation of Paris. Pecker was interested in astronomy from a young age. He studied at the Lycée Michel de Montaigne de Bordeaux but was forced to go into hiding during the Second World War. After the Liberation of France he attended the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. In October 1946 he joined the Institut d'astrophysique de Paris and studied for the agrégation of physics and chemistry, where he studied under, and had his doctoral thesis judged by Nobel Prize winning physicist Alfred Kastler. He earned his doctorate in May 1950. At the Institut d’Astrophysique he got to know and shared an office with Evry Schatzman with whom he collaborated for many years. 1978 President of the French association for the advancement of science 1983–1985 President of the Comité d'Orientation du Musée de la Villette 1986–1988 President of the Comité National de culture scientifique et technique 1988 Vice-chair of the Scientific committee of the Musées de France and thereafter permanent representative to UNESCO of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) 1999–2001 President of the Association française pour l'information scientifique Pecker was also associate member of the Royal Society of Science (Liege), associate of the Royal Astronomical Society, member of the National Academy of Bordeaux, the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts member of the Academia Europaea and sat on the international advisory board of the Institute for Science and Human Values. Pecker was also a member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

Publications Pecker wrote and co-wrote many books and over 700 academic papers on subjects such as cosmology, astronomy, astrophysics, human rights, pseudo-science, poetry and art. He also presented paintings at exhibitions in France. He also wrote popular science articles and books for the general public, some of which have been translated into other languages. His books include: The Sky (1959) Astrophysique Générale (with Evry Schatzman, 1959) The Orion Book of the Sky (Translated by William D. O'Gorman) (1960) Contribution to the spectral type theory: iv Formation of lines in stellar spectra (1963) Experimental Astronomy (translated by Robert Kandel) (1970) Space Observatories (Astrophysics and Space Science Library) (1970) Papa, dis-moi, qu'est-ce que c'est que l'Astronomie (1971) Book republished in January 2022 by Z4 Éditions. Stellar Paths: Photographic Astrometry with Long-Focus Instruments (1981) Clefs pour l'Astronomie (1981) Understanding the Universe: the impact of space astronomy (ed. West) (1983) Sous l'Étoile Soleil (1984) Astronomie Flammartion (1986) Building a world community: Humanism in the 21st century (ed. Paul Kurtz) (1989) The Future of the Sun (translated Maurice Robine) (1990) Pour comprendre l'Univers (w.Delsemme & Reeves 1988) L'avenir du Soleil (1990) Le Promeneur du Soleil (1992) Le Soleil est une étoile (1992) The Mars Effect (with Claude Benski) (1996) Understanding the Heavens: 30 centuries of astronomical ideas from ancient thinking to modern cosmology (English edition 2001) La photographie astronomique (2004) Current issues in cosmology (Cambridge University Press, 2006)

Foreword of scientific literature Pierre Bayart, La méridienne de France : et l'aventure de sa prolongation jusqu'aux Baléares, Paris, L'Harmattan, coll. « Acteurs de la science », 2007, 250 p. Serge Rochain, Histoire de la mesure des distances cosmiques : de Hipparque à Hubble, Londres, ISTE éditions, coll. « Histoire des sciences et des techniques », 2016, 222 p. Arkan Simaan, La science au péril de sa vie : Les aventuriers de la mesure du monde, Paris, Adapt/Vuibert, coll. « Histoire des sciences », 2001, 206 p. Arkan Simaan, L’Image du monde de Newton à Einstein, Paris, Adapt/Vuibert, coll. « Histoire des sciences », 2005, 152 p.

Humanism Pecker was vice-president of the French UNESCO committee in 1990, afterwards becoming a French permanent representative to UNESCO on behalf of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), an organisation which reflected his humanist approach to his life's work. Pecker spoke out against the governments punitive immigration laws, publicly supporting the National Coordination of Sans Papiers (CNSP) organisation. He was awarded the International Humanist Award for services to Humanism from the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) in 2005 and acted as a permanent representative to UNESCO on behalf of the IHEU.

Personal life Pecker married Charlotte Wimel in 1947 with whom he had three children: Martine Kemeny, Daniel and Laure. They divorced in 1964. In 1974 he married Anne-Marie Vormser who died in 2002. In addition to his scientific disciplines Pecker also wrote poetry and created works of art. When asked what astrophysics is for he replied, Nothing, fortunately!..Astrophysics brings no financial reward, but nowadays the only reward that counts is economic! Astrophysics is used to understand the Universe. It is essentially an intellectual discipline, for the pleasure of understanding, the pleasure of knowing, for the accumulation of knowledge. Astrophysics is for creating happiness. 1977 Member of the French Academy of Sciences 1981 Medaille de l’Adion of the Nice Observatory 1983 Rationalist Union prize 1984 Personalité de l'Année 1996 Stroobant Prize from the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium 1996 Lodén Prize from the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala 2005 International Humanist Award, for services to Humanism from the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU)

Pecker also has a minor planet (1629) named in his honour, discovered by L. Boyer.