Passion, perseverance and daring. Here is the motto of Merieme Chadid, astronomer, astrophysicist and explorer born in Casablanca and today in office in Nice. From the Atacama desert to Chile to the icy heart of Antarctica, no country is too hostile or remote for this pioneer ready to do anything to unravel the mysteries of the universe.
As far as she can remember, Merieme Chadid lived her eyes raised to the sky. As a child, in Casablanca, she proclaimed anyone who wanted to hear it: “When I am big, I will be astronomer”. Sixth of a modest family of seven children, his dream seemed a little crazy to those around him who urged him to keep his feet on the ground. One of his big brothers, Mustapha, taking the measure of his determination, recommends him to work the scientific subjects and offers him for his ten years a book by the astrophysicist Jean-Claude Pecker. “Obviously, I did not understand anything but I was with angels,” recalls the one who continued all of her studies in the Moroccan public system. Once her mastery in mathematics and physics in her pocket, she flies away for Nice where she enrolled in DEA (diploma of in -depth studies) in imaging in sciences of the universe.
She is 23 years old, no scholarship but the fierce desire to convert obstacles into springboards. “I had gaps in astrophysics, my knowledge was that of an amateur, compared to other students but I hung on.” So much so that she pursues until the doctorate in astronomy and spatial studies and devotes her thesis to “pulsating stars”, understand scintillating. Measuring their radiance makes it possible to determine the distances in the universe, its evolution, its age and detect hypersonic shocks. Today professor at the Nice faculty where she studied, she is empowered to direct research but she does not just transmit her knowledge.
All his life is dedicated to his passion. Her husband exercises the same job as her. In their garden, on the heights of Nice, they planted a telescope. And their two children have evocative first names, Leyla (“La Nuit”, in Arabic) and Tycho (in homage to the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe). Nothing enthusiasm more than building and installing telescopes during expeditions at the end of the world, far from any light and atmospheric pollution, often at high altitude. Between 1998 and 2001, she spent four years in the Atacama desert in Chile to participate in the installation of very large Telescopes (VLT), composed of four 8 -meter telescopes.
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Cap on Antarctica
Since 2005, she regularly heads on Antarctica where she is a pioneer in the installation of telescopes. Merieme Chadid is very proud to be the first person from Morocco to have reached the heart of Antarctica and the French first to have managed a scientific expedition in this region. “The missions last from three to six months and take place in extreme conditions, with temperatures reaching -83 ° C and an altitude of 4000 meters on the highest plateau in the Antarctica,” she explains. These extreme conditions make this territory a unique place of observation where the “coronal sky” is seen. The advantage, she continues, is a “continuous night of six months”, offering exceptional clarification comparable to satellites but without the astronomical cost that these instruments require.
At the same time, Merieme Chadid is president of the scientific council for the fundamental sciences at UNESCO, in which she campaigned for the democratization of science and astronomy in particular in countries where their access is difficult especially for young girls. It also chairs the G (stars and stellar physics) division of the international astronomical union.
His projects are commensurate with his ambitions: further increase the size of the telescopes mirrors, supervise in Chile the installation of a 39 -meter diameter telescope, four times larger than the VLT, capable of detecting exoplanets. His ultimate dream? Deploy this ELT telescope, extremely large, at the heart of Antarctica, which would constitute a “giant step for astrophysics” and which could, who knows, allow us to answer a question that haunts humanity since the dawn of time: “Are we alone in the universe?” »»
