以表彰他對紅外到亞毫米光譜範圍天文學的貢獻。他探測了在過去恆星形成過程中的星系所放出的宇宙遠紅外背景，並提出星際物質含有芳香族碳氫分子。通過普朗克太空計劃，他處理了星際物質前景的影響，因而顯著地提升了我們對宇宙學的認識。
2018年度邵逸夫天文學獎頒予尚−盧 • 普吉 (Jean-Loup Puget)以表彰他對紅外到亞毫米光譜範圍天文學的貢獻。他探測了在過去形成恆星過程中，星系所放出的宇宙遠紅外背景，並提出星際物質含有芳香族碳氫分子。通過普朗克太空計劃，他處理了星際物質前景的影響，因而顯著地提升了我們對宇宙學的認識。尚−盧 • 普吉 是法國國家科學研究中心及法國巴黎第十一大學奧賽太空天體物理研究所研究員暨歐洲太空總署普朗克計劃高頻儀器 (HFI) 首席研究員。
紅外至亞毫米光譜範圍為觀察宇宙打開了一個獨特的窗口。這種輻射能夠穿透星際介質中的遮掩物質，同時能夠探測該等物質的性質。在這個範圍內的最長波長，即約1毫米附近，亦能通過觀察宇宙微波背景(CMB)，為宇宙處於大約40萬年歲時的情況提供訊息。尚−盧 • 普吉 為所有這些研究領域作出了至為關鍵的貢獻。
The infrared-to-millimetre spectral range (1 to 10,000 μm) offers a unique and little explored window on the Universe. Such radiation probes cold, dusty objects such as dense interstellar material, forming stars, and obscured young galaxies. The longest wavelengths, near a few millimetres, also give information on conditions when the Universe was around 400,000 years old, via the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). To detect the faint cosmic signals in this waveband in the presence of very large instrumental, atmospheric and astronomical foreground radiation is challenging. It requires special cryogenic sensors, and optimized telescopes above the Earth’s atmosphere and in space. Jean-Loup Puget has made pivotal contributions to all these aspects, scientific as well as technical.
In the 1970s and early 1980s mysterious spectral emission features between 3 and 12 μm were discovered in Galactic reflection nebulae. Léger & Puget (1984) and independently Allamandola, Tielens and Barker (1985) proposed that these puzzling features come from large “polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon” (PAH) molecules, similar to car exhaust, and composed mainly of carbon-hydrogen rings. The PAHs represent a new form of interstellar “dust”. Dust grains and PAHs are heated when they absorb ultraviolet radiation from massive stars. They re-emit this energy as a grey-body thermal continuum in the infrared-submillimetre band and as PAH features. The total intensity of such emission measures cosmic star formation, integrated over the entire history of the Universe. In 1996 Puget and co-workers discovered in data of the NASA COBE satellite a pervasive 100 μm background radiation plausibly from an active star formation phase about 10 billion years ago. Many infrared measurements have since confirmed this discovery and shown that this was the epoch when most of stars in galaxies were formed.
尚−盧．普吉 (Jean-Loup Puget) 1947年於法國索恩盧瓦爾省索恩河畔出生，現為法國國家科學研究中心及法國巴黎第十一大學奧賽 太空天體物理研究所研究員暨歐洲太空總署普朗克計劃高頻儀器 (HFI) 首席研究員。1966年至1970年期間，他於法國卡尚高等師範學院進修，並於 1973年於該校取得博士學位。畢業後，他加入法國國家科學研究中心擔任研究員及研究所所長。1978年至1982年於巴黎天體物理學研究所擔任副所長。之後加入奧賽太空天體物理研究所，先後擔任副所長 (1990–1997) 及所長 (1998–2005)。他是法國科學院院士。
