Astrophysicist Françoise Combes Receives the 2020 Gold Medal from CNRS

Astrophysicist Françoise Combes receives the 2020 Gold Medal from CNRS

https://www.observatoiredeparis.psl.eu/astrophysicist-francoise.html

Pres release | CNRS Astrophysicist Françoise Combes receives the 2020 Gold Medal from CNRS

Date de mise en ligne : jeudi 10 septembre 2020

Observatoire de Paris - PSL Centre de recherche en astronomie et

astrophysique

The gold medal of the CNRS, one of the most prestigious French scientific awards, distinguishes this year the astrophysicist Françoise Combes. A specialist in the dynamics of galaxies, she has highlighted numerous phenomena that explain their formation and evolution. Today professor at the Collège de France, she continues her research at the Paris Observatory - PSL at the Laboratory for the Study of Radiation and Matter in Astrophysics and Atmospheres (Lerma ; Paris Observatory - PSL/CNRS/Sorbonne University/University of Cergy-Pontoise).

Françoise Combes, astrophysicienne lauréate de la médaille d'or 2020 du CNRS, ici à l'Observatoire de Paris - PSL. © Frédérique PLAS / CNRS

Françoise Combes' research is generally focused on the formation and evolution of galaxies. From their dynamics to their structure, as well as the interactions between them, through direct observations but also numerical simulations.

Her work has allowed to understand the relationship between the shape of galaxies and their history, and thus to decode the different stages of galaxy growth throughout the history of the Universe. She has also shown that super-massive black holes at the center of galaxies induce a slowing down of star formation within them.

For Antoine Petit, President and CEO of the CNRS, "Francoise Combes is an undisputed scientific leader in extragalactic physics at the global level, as evidenced by her numerous international awards. Her influence extends beyond her disciplinary field to the entire field of astronomy. It is an exceptional scientific career and a remarkable influence that the CNRS wishes to honor by awarding him its 2020 Gold Medal. »

Born on August 12, 1952 in Montpellier, Françoise Combes studied at the École normale supérieure (ENS). She was agrégée in physical sciences before becoming a Doctor of State in astrophysics in 1980.

She then joined the Paris Observatory in 1989, after having taught at the ENS and held the position of deputy director of the physics laboratory of the ENS (CNRS/ENS Paris/Sorbonne University/University of Paris).

Françoise Combes became a professor at the Collège de France in 2014 and is currently pursuing her research at the Paris Observatory - PSL within Lerma.

She is also a major actress of her discipline : President of the French Society of Astronomy and Astrophysics between 2002 and 2004, Françoise Combes is editor of the European journal Astronomy & Astrophysics since 2003 and has chaired the French Committee of International Scientific Unions from 2009 to 2015.

Her work also led her to participate in the discovery of the first molecular absorption systems in the distant Universe, which made it possible to determine the temperature of the cosmological background, as well as the hypothetical variation of physical constants as a function of the age of the Universe.

The originality of this work owes much to the technique pioneered by Françoise Combes : the observation of distant quasars for the detection of molecules by absorption spectroscopy [1] in order to detect very small quantities of matter at very large distances.

Françoise Combes contributes to constrain the models to solve one of the major problems of galaxy formation, the existence of invisible matter [Dark matter represents nearly 85% of the matter in our Universe, but is invisible and for the moment undetectable in a direct way]. Among these models, his team carried out the first simulations of bars and galaxy interaction in modified gravity. It has also developed a model to account for the as yet unknown baryonic dark matter, in the form of cold molecular gas.

Member of the Academy of Sciences since 2004, she was also made an Officer of the Legion of Honor in 2015 and Commander of the National Order of Merit in 2019. Her career has been marked by several remarkable awards. Among others, Françoise Combes received the Tycho Brahe Award from the European Astronomical Society in 2009, the R. M. Petrie Award from the Canadian Astronomical Society in 2013 and the Jules Janssen Award from the Société astronomique de France in 2017. She was also the recipient of an ERC Advanced Grant in 2010.

Passionate and always accessible Françoise Combes has trained several generations of students in a prolific career, and she also plays an important role in disseminating scientific culture to the general public through her writings and media interventions.

The CNRS Gold Medal has been awarded every year since its creation in 1954 to a scientific personality who has made an exceptional contribution to the dynamism and influence of French research. The latest winners are :

• Thomas Ebbesen, physico-chemist, in 2019 ; • Barbara Cassin, philosopher, in 2018 ; • Alain Brillet and Thibault Damour, physicists, in 2017 ; • Claire Voisin, mathematician, in 2016 ; • Eric Karsenti, biologist, in 2015 ; • Gérard Berry, computer scientist, in 2014 ; • Margaret Buckingham, developmental biologist, in 2013 ; • Philippe Descola, anthropologist, in 2012 ; • Jules Hoffmann, biologist, in 2011.

Know more

[1] Method of spectroscopy in millimetre wavelengths, using the extreme spectral resolution in this field, allowing the detection of absorption lines a thousand times narrower than the usual lines of galaxies