Valentin Martinez Pillet

Prior to Valentin M Pillet’s appointment as Director of the National Solar Observatory in 2013, he served as a senior scientist at the Instituto de Astrofíscia de Canarias in Tenerife, Spain where he was the co-principal investigator for the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager instrument flown on the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter mission. He was also principal investigator for the imaging magnetograph experiment that has flown as part of the polar Sunrise balloon-borne telescope. Valentin earned his bachelor’s degree from the Science University of Valencia and a doctorate in astrophysics from the University of La Laguna. He was a member of the science working team of the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter mission and was president of the division II of the International Astronomical Union “The Sun & the Heliosphere” from 2010-2012. He has published more than 100 papers in refereed journals.