The “René Pellat Memorial Festival Prize” aims to distinguish a young researcher for his/her significant work in plasma physics developed during the Festival de Théorie. Miss CHE received on July 6 this new price set up in 2017 from a CEA initiative.
The “Festival de théorie” held every other year in Aix en Provence brings together international experts and young researchers on the topic of plasma physics *. It is among the latter that a jury composed of members of the Scientific Committee of the Festival chose to give, for the first time, a prize in memory of René Pellat. The aim is to reward a young scientist for his contribution at the last Theory Festivals
Miss Haihong CHE, from China and currently based at the Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland (USA ), is the first recipient of this award.
The Selection Committee indicated that ; “Dr Che has opened new doors by her contributions to space and fundamental plasma physics. Her work has synthesized numerical simulations, theoretical analyses and penetrating insight into experimental data to achieve unique and novel results. She has displayed significant creativity in deriving new approaches to elucidate fundamental plasma interactions. Her most notable works include elucidation of current filamentation processes in fast magnetic reconnection, a new model of bursty radio emission triggered by Langmuir turbulence, and theoretical insight into Alfvénic cascades and phase space density hole dynamics. Her contributions to the 2015 and 2017 Festival de Théorie have been widely praised for their stimulating and novel character”. She highlighted the benefits she has gained from this event, in which she has being participated for the last 6 years. The exchanges she has had has inspired her with new ideas.
She was awarded the “René Pellat Memorial Festival Prize” by Alain Bécoulet, Director of CEA/IRFM, during the gala ceremony organized at the Musée Granet in Aix en Provence for the participants of the Festival de Théorie. Mr. Bécoulet took the opportunity to pay tribute to René Pellat, a great French scientist who received numerous awards and honours. At the end of his career he was the High Commissioner for Atomic Energy (CEA). He played a key role in the decision to build ITER at Cadarache
The sponsors of the Festival (Metropole Aix-Marseille Provence, City of Aix en Provence, Aix-Marseille Universityand A*MIDEX, Federation of Fusion Research by Magnetic Confinement (FR-FCM), la Société Française de Physique and Air Liquide and Vinci-Cegelec –Omexom companies) were warmly thanked for their support, which enabled to receive the hundred or so participants at the Festival, including some twenty international students, in very good conditions. This evening allowed scientists to discover the very beautiful modern art exhibition devoted to the Galerie Jeanne Bucher Jaeger.
*The “Festival de Théorie” is an international scientific event, created in 2001 under the leadership of Jean Jacquinot, current Scientific Advisor to the ITER Director General. It takes place every odd year in Aix-en-Provence, in July. The 9th edition takes place over four weeks, from June 26 to July 20, 2017. As in previous editions, the first two weeks are devoted to presentations of new interdisciplinary results covering fusion by magnetic confinement, astrophysics and Geophysics, and courses for young researchers. The last two weeks, research projects are undertaken by brilliant young selected researchers, supervised by a senior expert. The interdisciplinary and long-term format fulfills a triple purpose: to strengthen transdisciplinary collaborations, to train young researchers of high level, and to present the most recent works by promoting new ideas.