Thijs de Graauw (10 March 1942 – 20 April 2026) was a leading figure in submillimeter and infrared astronomy and a pioneer in heterodyne technology. De Graauw led the development of the ISO-SWS and Herschel-HIFI instruments at SRON in Groningen.
From 1983 to 1990, he led the SRON-Groningen department, after which he led SRON’s far-infrared group until 2007. In 2008 De Graauw became the director of ALMA, from which he retired in 2013.
In 2012 he won the Joseph Weber Award for his work on the short wavelength spectrometer on the ISO mission and on Herschel’s HIFI instrument. He was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020.
