Overall, 18 silver medals were distributed this year, in biology, social sciences, information technology, engineering, particle physics, and the science of the Earth and the Universe.
The 8 laureates from the Île-de-France received their awards on the 5th of November 2012, in the presence of d’Alain Fuchs president of the CNRS. Éric Gourgoulhon a was honoured by Jean-François Stéphan, director of the Institut national des sciences de l’Univers of the CNRS, in a ceremony witnessed by Jean-Louis Bougeret, vice-president of the alliance Paris Sciences et Lettres, of Claude Catala, president of the Observatoire de Paris, and of Stéphane Mazevet, director of the Laboratoire Univers et Théorie LUTH*.
Light on the dark side of sthe Universe
Right from the start, Eric Gourgoulhon launched himself into work combining astrophysics and mathematics. Already at the Saint-Cloud École normale supérieure he intended to penetrate the mysteries of the Universe. After obtaining a doctorate in astrophysics in 1992, Éric Gourgoulhon entered the Observatoire de Paris as a CNRS scientist (and is now in the Laboratoire Univers et théories, at Meudon). His work in general relativity is helping in the interpretation of the data coming from telescopes and gravitational wave detectors, in order to « understand the physics of compact objects, such as neutron stars and black holes ». Author of two books on special relativity and on the foundations of numerical relativity , Éric Gourgoulhon participated in the international launch in 2001, of the Library Object Language for Numerical Relativity LORENE. The deployment towards 2014 of an arsenal of powerful ground and space based observatories will enable the astrophysicist to test the behavior of matter and light in strong gravitational fields. With the explicit purpose : « of obtaining the first picture of the black hole at the centre of our galaxy ».
Eric Gourgoulhon responding for 5 minutes.
(CNRS photo gallery)
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Jean-François Stéphan handing him the CNRS silver medal.
(CNRS photo gallery)
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Eric Gourgoulhon, Claude Catala, president of the Observatoire de Paris, and Jean-François Stéphan.
(CNRS photo gallery)
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Stéphane Mazevet, Jean-François, Stéphan Claude Catala and the laureate (on the right).
(CNRS photo gallery)
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To know more
See the scientist’s page.
See the book Relativité restreinte - Des particules à l’astrophysique
See the full list of CNRS 2012 silver medallists..
Contact
– Eric Gourgoulhon
CNRS senior scientist
LUTH
01 45 07 74 33
*The Laboratoire Univers et théories LUTH is a science department of Observatoire de Paris. It is associated with CNRS and Université Paris Diderot.