Honorary Academician
Experimental Sciences: Doctor of Physical Sciences
Date of admission: October 25, 2021
Admission speech: «Some Reflections on Science, Society and the Ecological Transition»
Reply: Hon. Dr. José María Bové, Doctor in Economics and in Business Administration and Management
Outstanding career: She has devoted her life to scientific research and to promoting the intellectual legacy of the Curie family, advocating for the role of women in science.
Hélène Langevin-Joliot
- Granddaughter of Pierre and Marie Curie.
ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY
- Research Director at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).
- Specialist in fundamental nuclear physics.
- Her work has focused on nuclear spectroscopy, experiments on parity non-conservation, and later on nuclear reactions accessible with accelerators at the Institut de Physique Nucléaire d’Orsay.
- Research on giant resonances in medium and heavy nuclei with high excitation energy, exploring complex phenomena such as particle-hole coupling and surface vibrations.
- Member of the Scientific Council of the CNRS and Chair of its Nuclear Physics Section.
- Member of the first Scientific Council of the French Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Options.
- Dedicated part of her career to preserving the Curie and Joliot-Curie archives.
- President of the Union Rationaliste, promoting scientific culture and the role of science in society.
- 1949: Joined the CNRS, where she developed her entire career. Appointed Research Director in 1969 and Emeritus Research Director upon retirement in 1992.
- 1949–1957: Laboratory of Nuclear Chemistry and Physics, Collège de France.
- 1957–2008: Institut de Physique Nucléaire (IPN), Orsay.
- 1973–1978: Coordinator of the 200 MeV Synchro-Cyclotron Project at the IPN.
- 1979–1983: Director of the Department of Experimental Physics at the IPN.
- 1982–1986: Chair of the CNRS Nuclear Physics Committee and member of its Scientific Council.
- 1985–1992: Member of the Scientific Advisory Group of the Parliamentary Office for Scientific and Technological Options.
- 1996–1998: Member of the Commission for the Centenary of the Discovery of Radioactivity and Radium.
- 2004–2012: President of the Union Rationaliste, promoting reason and scientific culture.
- 2013: Appointed Commander of the Légion d’Honneur.
