Two scientists rewarded with the Michelin Foundation Prizes

To encourage scientific research, the Michelin Foundation supports the Academy of Sciences and awards two prizes each year to reward the research work of researchers who have contributed to progress in the following areas:

• Physics of complex materials
• Physics of composite materials
• Elasticity
• Wear of materials
• Calculation and simulation

• The 2023 Michelin Foundation Grand Prize – Academy of Sciences was awarded to:

Ludovic BERTHIER – CNRS Research Director at the Charles Coulomb Laboratory (University of Montpellier)

Ludovic Berthier is a theoretical physicist. It uses statistical mechanics and numerical simulation to study the physics of disordered materials, complex fluids and active matter. He has developed innovative numerical methods to understand the glass transition of molecular liquids and elucidate the physical, and particularly mechanical, properties of amorphous solids.

The Michelin Foundation – Academy of Sciences Grand Prize is awarded without nationality conditions to a scientist working in France, or internationally in close liaison with French teams.

• The 2023 Michelin Foundation Hope Prize – Academy of Sciences was awarded to:

Thomas SALEZ – CNRS researcher at the Aquitaine Waves and Matter Laboratory

With the team that Thomas Salez created and leads, he studies experimentally, theoretically and numerically the physics of complex matter in confinement and at interfaces. He obtained original results on nanometric glasses of polymers, as well as on elastohydrodynamic contacts and the capillarity of soft solids. He is now interested in the diffusion of proteins near cell membranes.

The Academy of Sciences paid tribute to them during the awards ceremony under the Dome of the Institut de France, on November 21, 2023. 

To know more: https://www.academie-sciences.fr/en/Overview/awards-and-medals.html