Illustration par défaut

Alexandre Le Tiec, awarded the 2019 CNRS bronze medal

3 December 2019

The 2019 CNRS bronze medal has been awarded to Alexandre Le Tiec, specialist in gravitational theory within the Relativity and compact objects group in the Laboratory for the Universe and theory of the Paris Observatory.

«One of my most significant epiphany’s dates from 2011. At that time I was trying to understand, on the basis of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Starting from a disturbing numerical «coincidence» , I managed, with the help of my colleagues, to find a simple and elegant mathematical relationship for the dynamics of these sources of gravitational waves. I am delighted to know that this work contributed to the a team effort which culminated by the announcement in February 2016 of the first direct detection of gravitational waves resulting from the combination of two black holes each having a mass of about thirty solar masses. »

CV of Alexandre Le Tiec

  • 2010 : Ph.D. in astrophysics delivered by the Pierre et Marie Curie University (Institut d’astrophysique de Paris)
  • 2010-2013 : Post-doc at the Maryland Center for Fundamental Physics of Maryland Univesrsity (U.S.A.)
  • 2013 : the Chandrasekhar Prize of the International Society for Relativity and Gravitation
  • Since 2013: Researcher (chargé de recherche) at the Laboratoire Univers et théories of the Paris Observatory
  • Since 2018: Coordinator of a team within the Gravitational Waves research group