Aurélien Barrau (born 19 May 1973, in Neuilly-sur-Seine) is a French

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and philosopher, specialized in astroparticle physics, black holes and

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

. He is the director of the Grenoble Center for Theoretical Physics, works in the CNRS ''Laboratory for Subatomic Physics and Cosmology'' (LPSC), and is a professor at the

Joseph Fourier University Joseph Fourier University (UJF, french: Université Joseph Fourier, also known as Grenoble I) was a French university situated in the city of Grenoble and focused on the fields of sciences, technologies and health. It is now part of the Universit ...

(now the

Université Grenoble Alpes The Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA, French: meaning "''Grenoble Alps University''") is a public research university in Grenoble, France. Founded in 1339, it is the third largest university in France with about 60,000 students and over 3,000 resea ...

). He was awarded the 2006 Bogoliubov Prize in theoretical physics for his research on quantum black holes and primordial cosmology. He was awarded the 2012 European Thibaud prize in subatomic physics. He is a junior member of the

Institut Universitaire de France The Institut Universitaire de France (IUF, Academic Institute of France), is a service of the French Ministry of Higher Education that distinguishes each year a small number of university professors for their research excellence, as evidenced by t ...

(IUF). He was awarded the Joseph Fourier University medal in 2010. He was invited both at the

Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques The Institut des hautes études scientifiques (IHÉS; English: Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies) is a French research institute supporting advanced research in mathematics and theoretical physics. It is located in Bures-sur-Yvette, jus ...

(France) and at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...

(

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

) as a visitor. He is member of the French national scientific council and referee for many international research agencies. He has written more than 100 refereed research articles. After working on gamma-ray astrophysics and large-field surveys ( LSST), he obtained new results in quantum cosmology and about the evaporation of black holes. His main recent contributions are focused on the early universe, especially in bouncing models, and on a local perspective on quantum properties of black holes. He also proposed original hypotheses for dark matter and the behavior of the Universe around the Big Bang. He worked on both loop quantum gravity and string theory. He is involved in scientific popularization, collaborates with artists (

Olafur Eliasson Olafur Eliasson ( is, Ólafur Elíasson; born 5 February 1967) is an Icelandic–Danish artist known for sculptured and large-scale installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer's ...

Michelangelo Pistoletto Michelangelo Pistoletto (born 23 June 1933) is an Italian painter, action and object artist, and art theorist. Pistoletto is acknowledged as one of the main representatives of the Italian Arte Povera. His work mainly deals with the subject ma ...

) and film makers (

Claire Denis Claire Denis (; born 21 April 1946) is a French film director and screenwriter. Her feature film ''Beau Travail'' (1999) has been called one of the greatest films of the 1990s, as well as of all time. Other acclaimed works include '' Trouble Ev ...

). He is a member of the editorial board of literature and poetry journals (Hors-Sol, Diacritik). He is also PhD in philosophy from Paris-Sorbonne University and has written books and articles with the French philosopher

Jean-Luc Nancy Jean-Luc Nancy ( , ; 26 July 1940 – 23 August 2021) was a French philosopher. Nancy's first book, published in 1973, was ''Le titre de la lettre'' (''The Title of the Letter'', 1992), a reading of the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Laca ...

. He worked on metaphysical questions about truth and multiplicity. He has published 2 poetry books. In 2019, with the actress

Juliette Binoche Juliette Binoche (; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress and dancer. She has appeared in more than sixty feature films and has been the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Silver Bear, ...

, he launched a call to fight the

ecological crisis An ecological or environmental crises occurs when changes to the environment of a species or population destabilizes its continued survival. Some of the important causes include: * Degradation of an abiotic ecological factor (for example, incr ...

. The text was signed by many scientists, together with artists like

Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album ''Horses''. Called the "punk poet ...

or Wim Wenders. In 2020, he wrote a second international tribune, signed by 20 Nobel Prize winners and many stars, explicitly saying that we are facing a systemic problem. The text also says that "the pursuit of consumerism and an obsession with productivity have led us to deny the value of life itself". He is close to antiracist and animal right theorists.

Books (in French)

*''Forme et Origine de l'Univers'', Paris, Dunod, 2010 *''Multivers'', Paris, La Ville Brûle, 2010 *''Relativité Générale'', Paris, Dunod, 2011 (with J. Grain) *''Dans quels mondes vivons nous ?'', Paris, Galilée, 2011 (with J.-L. Nancy) *''Variations sur un même ciel'', Paris, La Ville Brûle, 2010 (J.-P. Uzan et al.) *''Big Bang et au-delà'', Paris, Dunod, 2012 *''Des univers multiples'', Paris, Dunod, 2014 *''De la vérité dans les sciences'', Paris, Dunod, 2015 *''Au coeur des trous noirs'', Paris, Dunod, 2017 *''L'Animal est-il un homme comme les autres'', Paris, Dunod, 2018 *''Le plus grand défi de l'histoire de l'humanité'', Paris, Dunod, 2018 *''Météorites'', Paris, Dunod, 2020 *''Il faut une révolution politique, poétique et philosophique'', Paris, Zulma, 2021 *''Anomalies cosmiques'', Paris, Dunod, 2022

Books (in English)

*''What's These Worlds Coming To?'', with J.-L. Nancy, Fordham University Press, 2014

External links and sources in english

Research articles

CERN Courier popularization article on microscopic black holes

CERN Courier popularization article on the Multiverse

Home page of Aurelien Barrau

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrau, Aurelien 21st-century French astronomers 21st-century French physicists Living people 1973 births People from Neuilly-sur-Seine