Pierre Coheur

Pierre Coheur is a Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in the Faculty of Sciences, specializing in atmospheric remote sensing and spectroscopy. He currently serves as Vice-recteur au développement durable at ULB (2024-present) and Advisor for the Rector – Research in Science and Technology (2023-present). Previously, he was Head of the Chemistry Department (2021-2022) and Head of the SQUARES laboratory (2017-2023).

His research focuses on remote-sensing of Earth and planetary atmospheres, atmospheric radiative transfer and retrievals, atmospheric chemistry, environmental chemistry, and molecular spectroscopy. Coheur leads several major research projects including "Hyperspectral atmospheric IR sounding missions" (HIRS), "Building a benchmarking service for Chemistry-Climate Models" (BCCM-O3), and "SPectroscopy in support to the exploration of planetary atmospHERES" (SPHERES).

His recent publications reveal a strong focus on satellite-based atmospheric monitoring, particularly using IASI data, with applications to studying wildfire emissions, ozone variability, greenhouse gases, and air quality. His work demonstrates expertise in analyzing atmospheric composition across different planetary environments, from Earth to Mars.

• Frontiers Planet Prize, National champion (2023)
• Certificate for outstanding contribution to the Mars Express mission (2023)
• Research.com Environmental Sciences in Belgium Leader Award (2023)
• Researcher of the "Fondation de l'Université" (since 2010)
• Stas Award of the Royal academy of Sciences (1999)

Professor Coheur has supervised numerous PhD students including Mauri Rosier, Gaia Pinardi, Beata Opacka, and others. He serves as Chairman of the IASI Sounder Science Working Group (EUMETSAT-CNES) since 2019 and is a member of the ACE Science Team since 2004. His research is supported by multiple grants from ESA, BELSPO, and other funding agencies.

He leads the Spectroscopy, Quantum Chemistry and Atmospheric Remote Sensing research group at ULB, which includes several postdoctoral researchers and collaborators working on atmospheric composition monitoring using satellite data.