
Deeply involved since her Ph.D. thesis in work on cometary atmospheres, at an epoque when comets were thought of as just dust-ridden (in all senses of the word) and secondary bodies of the Solar System, she has participated in, and to a large extent contributed to, first class research on the origin of the solar system, on the problem of the origin of water on planets, and on the origin of life.
In addition to her observational work in the radio, millimetre and infra-red spectral domains, Dominique Bockelée-Morvan has contributed to the design and use of the VIRTIS instrument (IAPS-Rome and LESIA) and of MIRO (JPL and LERMA) on the Rosetta space probe.
She is involved in the teams which are preparing and finalizing observations of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta’s target for 2014, and she is participating in the determination of the chemical composition of the inner coma of this comet : these observations could be the key to unravel the molecular composition of the comet, before the molecules are photochemically broken up by solar radiation.
Not only has Dominique Bockelée-Morvan contributed to our understanding of the composition of cometary atmospheres, but she has also helped to forge the link between cometary material and interstellar matter, which furnishes a fascinating insight on the creation of complex molecules in emerging planetary systems. There is a natural link with prebiotic chemistry, and her research continues in that direction.
Among her recent publications is an article in Nature on the detection of water vapour on an asteroid, Ceres.
Sébastien Lambert, a scientist in the Time-Space Reference System Department, is the 2014 CNRS bronze medallist. This medal is awarded to a scientist for his first piece of research whereby he can be considred to be an outstanding specialist in his particular domain. Through this award, the CNRS signals its encouragement to continue the promising research which has already yielded fruitful results.