Awards and prizes

Ruth Lyttle Satter 

Prize

Claire Voisin, CNRS researcher at the Jussieu Mathematics Institute (Institut de mathématiques de Jussieu) has received the 2007 Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize, awarded by the American Mathematical Society (AMS). This prize is awarded every two years to women who have made an outstanding contribution to mathematics. Claire Voisin is renowned for her work in the field of algebraic geometry.

Marie Curie Excellence Award

Chris Ewels, CNRS researcher at the Institute for Materials (Institut des matériaux) in Nantes is the recipient of the Marie Curie Excellence Award 2006. He was rewarded for his research into defects in graphite and carbon nanotubes. Each year, the Marie Curie Excellence Awards are given to five researchers who have received backing from European support programs.

European Descartes prize

The HESS observatory team has received the 2007 European Descartes prize in recognition of its work on the "non-thermal universe" or "violent universe" that has established a new field of astronomy. HESS (High-Energy Stereoscopic System) refers to an assembly of four telescopes installed in Namibia on the Gamsberg plateau. This observatory was mainly built by French and German laboratories, later to be joined by teams from other European and southern African countries. HESS is primarily dedicated to observing the southern skies and provides precious information about some of the Universe's most violent phenomena by detecting very high-energy gamma rays. It has been at the origin of many discoveries in the field of gamma astronomy. Since its inception in 2000, the Descartes prize has been awarded annually to scientific teams for their transnational collaborative research results.

> http://lpnp90.in2p3.fr/~hess/