Alain Aspect elected to the Académie française
Congratulations to this internationally renowned researcher!
The French Academy
Alain Aspect has been elected to the Académie française.
The Académie française is made up of 40 members, including a Secrétaire perpétuel, who represents the Company at official ceremonies. It meets in committees responsible for :
- managing the Company's assets: endowments, foundations, movable and immovable property, portfolio. In this capacity, the Secrétaire perpétuel is responsible for authorizing expenditure and signing all accounting documents: salaries, prizes, bursaries, grants, subsidies, works, taxes, insurance, contracts, deeds of purchase, sale or lease concerning the assets;
- writing its Dictionary: revising the Dictionary and preparing its publication;
- awarding its prizes. These include the Grand Prix, the Grand Prix du Roman, the Prix de la Francophonie, the Prix de Poésie, the Prix de Littérature et de Philosophie, the Prix d'Histoire et de Sociologie, the Prix du Théâtre and the Prix du Cinéma;
- examines, on a case-by-case basis, applications from large families and requests for grants.
Alain Aspect
Born in Agen in 1947, Alain Aspect entered ENSET (now ENS Paris-Saclay) in 1965. He graduated in 1969. He continued his studies at the Orsay Faculty of Science, where he conducted part of his fundamental research in quantum optics.
In 1983, he defended his state thesis and became a major figure in experimental physics, thanks in particular to his work on quantum entanglement at the Institut d'Optique d'Orsay. This research revolutionized our understanding of the quantum world and paved the way for cutting-edge technologies such as quantum cryptography and quantum computers.
Affiliated professor at ENS Paris-Saclay since 2014, Alain Aspect has also taught at Université Paris-Saclay and École Polytechnique. He is Director of Research Emeritus at the CNRS and has been a member of the Académie des Sciences since 2001.
Alain Aspect is also a member of the Académie des Sciences and the Académie des Technologies, and a foreign member of the Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts in Belgium, the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Italy, the National Academy of Sciences in the USA, the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, and the Royal Society in the UK.
Awards and distinctions
- 2022: Nobel Prize in Physics with John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger for their work on quantum mechanics
- 2021: Honorary member of Optica
- 2005: CNRS Gold Medal
- 2013: Balzan Prize.
- 2013: Niels Bohr Medal to mark the centenary of the publication of Niels Bohr's atomic model.
- 2012: Albert-Einstein Medal.
- 2010: Wolf Prize in Physics, jointly with American John F. Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger, for his conceptual and experimental contributions to quantum physics.
- 2005: CNRS gold medal.
- 1991: winner of the Holweck Prize in 1991.
His books
Specialist books
- Introduction aux lasers et à l’optique quantique, Ellipses, 1997. Published in English by Cambridge University Press
Books for the general public
- Une nouvelle révolution quantique, dans Demain, la physique, Odile Jacob, 2004.
- Einstein et les révolutions quantiques, CNRS Éditions, 2019 ; publié en italien, en anglais, en chinois.
- Si Einstein avait su, Odile Jacob, 2025. Traduction en cours pour une publication en versions anglaise, espagnole, italienne, chinoise, japonaise.