[1] His father, Benjamin Schatzman, was a dentist born in Tulcea, Romania, and emigrated at a young age with his family to Palestine.

He worked there for a year and then moved to Haute-Provence Observatory where he hid under the pseudonym Antoine Emile Louis Sellier.

[3][4][5] He was appointed by the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in autumn 1945 and received his doctorate in March 1946.

He worked for a long time at the Institut d'Astrophysique, a CNRS organization built in the garden side of l'Observatoire.

During this period Schatzman also taught at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (English: Free University of Brussels).

He received the Prix Jules Janssen of the Société astronomique de France (French Astronomical Society) in 1973, the Holweck Prize in 1985, and the Gold Medal of the CNRS in 1983.