Background
Michel, Patrick was born on February 25, 1970 in Saint-Tropez, France. Son of Jean-Paul and Marie-Claire (Giordana) Michel.
Michel, Patrick was born on February 25, 1970 in Saint-Tropez, France. Son of Jean-Paul and Marie-Claire (Giordana) Michel.
Diploma in Engineering, Superior School Aeronautical Technics., Paris, 1993. Master of Science, Nice (France) University, 1994. Doctor of Philosophy in Physics, Nice (France) University, 1997.
Michel began his advanced education with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering and Space Techniques in 1993 whereafter he moved to the study of asteroids. He is specialist of the physical properties and the collisional and dynamical evolution of asteroids. His researches focus on the collisional processes between asteroids, the origin of near-Earth objects, binary asteroids, their physical properties, their response to various processes (impacts, tidal encounters, shaking) as a function of their internal and surface properties, and the risks of impacts with the Earth.
His results have been the subject of more than 70 publications in refereed international journals, and have been featured on the covers of both Science and Nature.
Michel is deeply involved in several space missions and projects devoted to the investigation of small bodies and asteroid hazard. He is leading the European science team of the AIDA space mission technology demonstration, in collaboration between European Space Agency and National Aeronautics and Space Administration, aimed at deflecting the secondary of the binary near-Earth asteroid Dydimos using a kinetic impactor.
AIDA will go into Phase A study at European Space Agency and National Aeronautics and Space Administration in February 2015. He is a co-I on the JAXA Hayabusa 2 and National Aeronautics and Space Administration OSIRIS-REx sample return missions to a primitive near-Earth asteroid.
Hayabusa 2 was launched successfully on December 3rd, 2014 and OSIRIS-REx will be launched in September 2016.
He was a co-chair of the science study team of the MarcoPolo-R sample return mission during the assessment study phase (2011-2013) at the European Space Agency (European Space Agency). He belongs to the Near-Earth Object Mission Advisory Panel (NEOMAP) mandated by European Space Agency to recommend space missions devoted to a better understanding of the impact threat. He is also responsible of the Work Package on numerical simulations of collisions and asteroid deflection by a kinetic impactor in the European Consortium NEOShield funded by the FP7 program of the European Commission (2012-2015).
He has wide involvement in international organizations and belongs to the Science Program Committee of Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (French space agency).
He has been elected Secretary of the Division 3 (Planetary Science) of the International Astronomical Union (International Astronomical Union) in 2009-2012. He also belongs to the Action Team 14 (AT4) of the COPUOS at the United Nations aimed at recommending actions and an international organization to deal with the asteroid impact threat and to the Steering Committee of the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) recommended by AT14.
He actively contributes to public outreach and is regularly solicited by various media to participate in French television shows, radio interviews, and to contribute to the writing of papers in popular journals on topics related to small celestial body hazards, space missions and planetary formation. Asteroid 7561 PatrickMichel was named in his honor by the International Astronomical Union.
Affiliate member American Astronomical Society, Department Planetary Sciences. Member New York Academy of Sciences, French Society of Specialists in Astronomy.