A shower of recognition for French research

All audiences

A number of prizes, awards, and medals bestowed in the last few weeks have confirmed the excellence of French research in fields such as mathematics, health, and nanotechnologies.

Mathematics and industrial applications

The International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics conferred its 2019 prizes at the International Congress of Applied and Industrial Mathematics in Valencia, Spain, in mid-July.

These prestigious awards recognized mathematicians whose applied contributions have been particularly significant. Among the winners were two French researchers, Claude Bardos, professor emeritus at the University of Paris Diderot, and Yvon Maday, professor at Sorbonne University. In the words of Frédérique Vidal, France’s minister of education and research, the prizes attest to “the excellence of French mathematics and the quality of its contributions to innovation."

Health and immunology

French immunologist Jérôme Galon, a research director at INSERM, won the 2019 European Inventor’s Prize in the research category.

Conferred by the European Patent Office, the Inventor’s Prize honors exceptional inventors from Europe and elsewhere who make significant contributions to social and technological progress and to economic growth. Galon won the prize for his invention of a test to predict recidivism in cancer patients, an innovation that, according to Frédérique Vidal, France’s minister of education and research, “has spread around the world and will improve support for countless patients.”

Physics, chemistry, and nanotechnologies

Thomas Ebbesen is the winner of the 2019 gold medal awarded by France’s national center for scientific research, the CNRS. It is one of France’s highest scientific honors.

The distinction recognizes the cumulative work of one or more scientists who have contributed to the dynamism and reach of French research. Thomas Ebbesen is a Franco-Norwegian physical chemist whose work in the nanosciences spans several disciplines. Frédérique Vidal, France’s minister of education and research, hailed Ebbesen as a pioneer who showed “how a deep understanding of physical phenomena, joined with curiosity and creativity, make it possible to stake out entirely new fields of basic research.”