While we celebrate 50 years of ESA in 1975, the real ‘genesis moment’ for European space can be traced back to 1959, and the initial conversations between two celebrated physicists with a shared vision. This special opening of proceedings from a symposium in honour of one of them - Pierre Auger - sheds new light on these beginnings, on the careers, networks and cooperation of these pioneers and on the fulfilment of their work, which would eventually lead to the creation of ESA.
Eminent French physicist Auger had made his name with the discovery of the Auger effect in the 1920s. Today he is also considered one of the founding fathers of European space along with his Italian counterpart Edoardo Amaldi. While Amaldi can be seen more as the man with the dream (his paper Créons une organisation européenne pour la recherche spatiale was published in the French press in December 1959), Auger could justifiably claim to be the committee man who helped make it real. He had already established his credentials as a promoter of European cooperation in scientific research (including the post-war creation of CERN), when he followed up on discussions at the first COSPAR assembly in January 1960 with a gathering of European scientists in his Paris home in February. Out of this, and other watershed 1960 meetings at the UK Royal Society, came the formation of the GEERS study group for European space science, and then COPERS, the preparatory commission for the establishment of ESRO, for which he was Executive Secretary.
In a continuation, Auger became the first Director General of ESRO on its formal creation in March 1964. His term dealt with the difficulties faced by this young organisation in its early years, and he oversaw the planning of extensive reforms that were enacted after his retirement in October 1967.
In recognition of his enormous contribution to ESRO, a farewell symposium was organised on 28 November 1967 at the Centre de Conférences Internationales, in avenue Kléber, Paris. Unknowingly looking to the future, its introductory address was given by Reimar Lüst (who drew up ESRO’s Scientific Programme as the Scientific Director of COPERS, and would go on to become ESA’s third Director General). This was followed by four speeches from colleagues and friends outlining Auger’s achievements. Each offered a glimpse into the different facets a career that ranged from nuclear power to space research and from the international civil service to philosophy and poetry.
Lüst, for example, spoke from an ESRO perspective, retracing milestones in the setting up of ESRO, from that first general assembly of COSPAR (the committee for Space Research) in January 1960 to the ratification of the ESRO Convention in March 1964. Nobel laureate in physics Alfred Kastler instead covered Auger’s scientific legacy, beginning with his two landmark discoveries of the atomic auger electron effect, and of cosmic air showers.
Alfred Fessard, one of the founders of the neurosciences in France, gave a wide-ranging discourse on Auger as a humanist, thinker and man of science, touching on both his public life at national and international level and his philosophical reflections on science in his creative production, notably his 1952 ‘essay in monadology’, L’ Homme Microscopique. Auger’s UNESCO colleague Lionel Elvin picked up on the reference and on his concern for the social implications of science in a talk about his years as head of the Department of the Natural Sciences at UNESCO; defining Auger as a ‘functional internationalist’, and renaming him L’Homme Macroscopique in his closing.
The final speaker was Lev Kowarski from CERN, who focused on Auger’s contribution to its founding and name. He also brings us full circle and back to their collaborator Edoardo Amaldi. It is interesting to note the swap between Amaldi and Auger in the roles they played here. Auger was the first to slowly step away from CERN, while Amaldi took on the preparatory work leading up to its definitive creation in September 1954, acting as Secretary General of the preliminary organisation from 1952 to 1954.
Auger himself concluded the event with his response, which mentioned his many associations with national and international research organisations, also including CNES (the French national space agency) and the recently-founded EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization). He credits this to his 'infection by the international virus', which seems the basis for a very apt epithet!
In addition to subscribing to this self-definition, we hope that both Auger and Amaldi would be proud to see their brainchild ESA, an organisation entirely infected by the international virus, celebrating its half century.
See the full proceedings
Hommage Jubilaire Rendu au Professeur Pierre Auger, comprising these six speeches, was published in French, with each of the speeches reproduced in the language in which it was given: four in French and two in English.
Consult the proceedings in the SHIP database.
Further reading
You can read more about Auger in our space glossary and consult a full biography on the ESA website.
