Lodewijk Woltjer studied at Leiden University in Holland. Chairman at the Astronomy Department at Columbia University, he became Director General of ESO from 1975-1987. He has been chairman of the ESA Space Science Advisory Committee and President of the International Astronomical Union. For several years now he has been associated with the Observatoire de Haute Provence and also with the Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri in Florence.