Georges Calas is professor of

mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proces ...

(Emeritus) at Sorbonne Université and an honorary Senior Member of University Institute of France.

Education

Calas was educated at the

École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Sav ...

(now École normale supérieure de Lyon) where he graduated in natural sciences and at

Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University Pierre and Marie Curie University (french: link=no, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, UPMC), also known as Paris 6, was a public research university in Paris, France, from 1971 to 2017. The university was located on the Jussieu Campus in the La ...

where he received his doctorate.

Career

Prior to his appointment at

, Calas has been researcher at

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

then full professor (1981–2001) at

Paris Diderot University Paris Diderot University, also known as Paris 7 (french: Université Paris Diderot), was a French university located in Paris, France. It was one of the inheritors of the historic University of Paris, which was split into 13 universities in 197 ...

where he chaired the Department of Earth Sciences. He was elected Senior member of the University Institute of France (IUF) in 2007 and renewed in 2012. He has been Allan Cox visiting professor at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and Royal Society visiting scientist at the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh. He made major scientific contributions over the past 4.5 decades in geochemistry, mineralogy, and materials sciences, with a focus on molecular-scale approaches, the structure/property relationships in minerals and glasses including industrial materials, the environmental geochemistry and mineralogy of heavy metal contaminants, the nuclear waste glasses and the radiation damage in glasses and minerals. More recently, his research has extended to mineral resources and their sustainable development and to cultural heritage materials. He has been a pioneer in the use of solid-state spectroscopy in these scientific areas, particularly using synchrotron radiation. From 2005 to 2008, he was Associate member of the Stanford Environmental Molecular Science Institute at

. He held the chair on Sustainable Development– Environment, energy and society at Collège de France in 2014–2015. The topic of this Chair was: " Mineral Resources – A Major Challenge in the Context of Sustainable Development". Calas served on the board of directors of the

Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières Bureau ( ) may refer to: Agencies and organizations * Government agency *Public administration * News bureau, an office for gathering or distributing news, generally for a given geographical location * Bureau (European Parliament), the administra ...

and chaired various national and regional scientific networks and audit committees. He has been chair of the Commission on Physics of Minerals at the

International Mineralogical Association Founded in 1958, the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) is an international group of 40 national societies. The goal is to promote the science of mineralogy and to standardize the nomenclature of the 5000 plus known mineral species. Th ...

. A former Principal Editor of the journals ''

Elements Element or elements may refer to: Science * Chemical element, a pure substance of one type of atom * Heating element, a device that generates heat by electrical resistance * Orbital elements, parameters required to identify a specific orbit of ...

'' and '' Terra Nova'', he serves on the editorial board of '' Physics and Chemistry of Minerals'', ''

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta ''Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta'' (GCA, for, , Latin, Geochemical and Cosmochemical Journal) is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier. It was established in 1950 and is sponsored by the Geochemical Society and the Me ...

'' and '' Journal of the American Ceramic Society''.

Publications

* Calas has published 350 articles and book chapters, gathering more than 16,000 citations, according to Google Scholar.

Honors

Calas has received the best paper Award of the Mineralogical Society of America in 1999, the Ivan Peyches Award (Materials Sciences) of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific me ...

in 2002, the Léon Bertrand Medal (Applied Geology) of the Société Géologique de France in 2006, the Schlumberger Award of the

Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland began in 1876. Its main purpose is to disseminate scientific knowledge of the Mineral Sciences (mineralogy) as it may be applied to the fields of crystallography, geochemistry, petrology, e ...

in 2011, the Dolomieu Medal (Earth Sciences) of the

in 2011, the Merit Award of the Société française de minéralogie et de cristallographie in 2020 and the IMA Medal for Excellence in Mineralogical Research of the

in 2020. He is a fellow of Mineralogical Society of America, Geochemical Society and

European Association of Geochemistry The European Association of Geochemistry (EAG) is a pan-European organization founded to promotes geochemical research. The EAG organizes conferences, meetings and educational courses for geochemists in Europe, including the Goldschmidt Conference w ...

Society of Glass Technology The Society of Glass Technology (SGT) is an organization for individuals and organizations with a professional interest in glass manufacture and usage. The Society is based in the United Kingdom, with its offices in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, En ...

and the American Ceramic Society. He is an Honorary Fellow of the

. He was President of the Société française de minéralogie et de cristallographie in 1992 and was elected to Academia Europaea in 2011 and to the Royal Society of Canada in 2014.

References

External links

Collège de France website
English home page * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Calas, Georges Members of Academia Europaea Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Pierre and Marie Curie University alumni Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada ENS Fontenay-Saint-Cloud-Lyon alumni