CEA

François Daviaud, Olivier Parcollet and Anne Peyroche were respectively awarded the Grand Prix du CEA, the Prix thématique de physique Ernest Déchelle physics prize and the Prix thématique de biologie moléculaire Victor Noury-Thorlet-Henri Becquerel-Jules et Augusta Lazare molecular biology prize. The researchers received their awards on 24 November during an official ceremony at the Institut de France.

Every year, the Grand Prix du CEA (€30,500) rewards one or more French scientists for an important scientific or technical discovery . This year, it was awarded jointly to François Daviaud, a physicist at the CEA's Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics in Saclay, near Paris, Stephan Fauve, a professor at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and Jean-François Pinton, CNRS Director of Research at the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon. Their research activities made it possible to observe the spontaneous generation and dynamics of a magnetic field in a finite volume of liquid metal under turbulent flow conditions. The experiment, known as VKS for "von Karman sodium" and its interpretation represent a crucial step towards understanding the origins and evolution of planetary and stellar magnetic fields. In awarding this prize, the Academy of Sciences wished to pay tribute to the "model example of collaboration" set up by the CEA, CNRS and the Ecoles Normales Supérieures in this area of research.

The Ernest Déchelle physics prize (€1,500) was awarded to Olivier Parcollet, a researcher at the CEA Institute of Theoretical Physics in Saclay, for his fundamental research work in the field of theoretical condensed matter physics. This work seeks to learn more about the mechanisms related to critical high-temperature superconductivity. The Ernest Déchelle prize is awarded every four years.
The Victor Noury-Thorlet-Henri Becquerel-Jules et Augusta Lazare prize for molecular biology (€1,500) was awarded to Anne Peyroche, a research engineer at the CEA Institute of Biology and Technology in Saclay. The prize rewards Anne Peyroche for her work on Brefeldin A, a drug which inhibits the secretory pathway of proteins, and for her research activities leading to the identification of several chaperone proteins which act as a guide in proteasome assembly, the complex machinery responsible for the targeted degradation of proteins in cells.
The French Academy of Sciences awards around 80 prizes each year for both fundamental and applied research work in many scientific disciplines. The most prestigious prize is the Grande Médaille. Research scientists may also be awarded one of twenty Grands Prix and fifty Prix thématiques in certain specialist fields.

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Marie Vandermersch
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Email: marie.vandermersch@cea.fr