The Prix Georges Lemaître is an award created in 1995, in celebration of the centenary of the birth in 1894 of
Georges Lemaître. The ''Association des Anciens et Amis de l'Université catholique de Louvain'' (Association of the Alumni and Friends of the
Université catholique de Louvain
The Université catholique de Louvain (also known as the Catholic University of Louvain, the English translation of its French name, and the University of Louvain, its official English name) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It ...
) initiated the award,
as well as the ''Fondation Georges Lemaître'' (Georges Lemaître Foundation). The prize, endowed with 25,000
euro
The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
s as of 2003, is awarded every two years
to a scientist who has made a remarkable contribution to ''développement et à la diffusion des connaissances dans les domaines de la cosmologie, de l'astronomie, de l'astrophysique, de la géophysique, ou de la recherche spatiale''
[ (development and dissemination of knowledge in the fields of cosmology, astronomy, astrophysics, geophysics, or space science). The winner is chosen by an international jury of scientists, chaired by the rector of the Université catholique de Louvain.
]
List of recipients
* 1995 — Philip James Edwin Peebles, astrophysicist and cosmologist
* 1997 — Jean-Claude Duplessy
Jean-Claude Duplessy, born in 1942, is a French geochemist. He is Director of Research Emeritus at the CNRS and a member of the French Academy of Sciences.
Biography
Jean-Claude Duplessy, a former student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ul ...
, geochemist and climatologist
* 1999 — Jean-Pierre Luminet
Jean-Pierre Luminet (born 3 June 1951) is a French astrophysicist, specializing in black holes and cosmology. He is an emeritus research director at the CNRS (Centre national de la recherche scientifique). Luminet is a member of the Laboratoir ...
, astrophysist, and Dominique Lambert, philosopher of science
* 2001 — Kurt Lambeck, geophysicist
* 2003 — Alain Hubert
Alain Hubert (born September 11, 1953, in Schaerbeek) is a Belgian explorer.State, P. F., ''Historical Dictionary of Brussels'', 2nd ed. ( Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015)pp. 209–210 He is a certified mountain and polar guide, a civi ...
, explorer and climatologist
* 2005 — Édouard Bard, climatologist
* 2007 — Susan Solomon, atmospheric chemist and climatologist
* 2009 — Jean Kovalevsky Jean Kovalevsky (May 18, 1929 – August 17, 2018) was a French astronomer, specializing in celestial mechanics. He is known as a primary initiator (with Pierre Lacroute) and a leader of the Hipparcos space experiment.
Biography
Born in Neuilly-sur ...
, astronomer
* 2010 — André Berger
André Léon Georges Chevalier Berger (born July 30, 1942, Acoz) is a Belgian climatologist and professor. He is best known for his significant contribution to the renaissance and further development of the astronomical theory of paleoclimates a ...
, climatologist
* 2012 — Michael Heller, cosmologist
* 2015 — Anny Cazenave
Anny Cazenave () is a French space geodesist and one of the pioneers in satellite altimetry. She works for the French space agency CNES and has been deputy director of the (LEGOS) at Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées in Toulouse since 1996. Since 20 ...
, geophysicist, and Jean-Philippe Uzan
Jean-Philippe Uzan (born 1969) is a French cosmologist and '' directeur de recherche'' employed by the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS).
Education and career
In 1987 Uzan graduated from secondary school with the degree ''Baccala ...
, theoretical physicist and cosmologist
* 2017 — Kip Thorne, theoretical physicist
* 2019 — George F. R. Ellis
George Francis Rayner Ellis, FRS, Hon. FRSSAf (born 11 August 1939), is the emeritus distinguished professor of complex systems in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He co-auth ...
, theoretical physicist and cosmologist
* 2021 — hiatus due to COVID–19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
* 2023 — Sheperd S. Doeleman
Sheperd "Shep" S. Doeleman (born 1967) is an American astrophysicist. His research focuses on super massive black holes with sufficient resolution to directly observe the event horizon. He is a senior research fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Cen ...
, astrophysicist
References
Belgian awards
Science and technology awards
Awards established in 1995
{{sci-award-stub