Sylvie Vauclair (born on March 7, 1946, in

Saint-Germain-en-Laye Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the centre of Paris. Inhabitants are called ''Saint-Germanois'' or ''Saint-Ge ...

) is a French astrophysicist (at the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie), and

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

(at the

Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier University Paul Sabatier University (''Université Paul Sabatier'', UPS, also known as Toulouse III) is a French public university, in the Academy of Toulouse. It is one of the several successor universities of the University of Toulouse. Toulouse III was ...

), where she taught for more than 30 years. She also taught for a decade at the

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 ...

. She has served as president of the Société Française d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique.

Biography

After two theses under the direction of

Hubert Reeves Hubert Reeves (born July 13, 1932), is a Canadian astrophysicist and popularizer of science. Early life and education Reeves was born in Montreal on July 13, 1932, and as a child lived in Léry. Reeves attended Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, a ...

and then

Evry Schatzman Evry Léon Schatzman (16 September 1920 – 25 April 2010) was a French scientist hailed as "the father of modern French astrophysics". Background His father, Benjamin Schatzman, was a dentist born in Tulcea, Romania, and emigrated at a young ag ...

, her scientific work first focused on the formation and evolution of the chemical elements that make up matter in the universe: sun, stars, primordial universe. She particularly studied the importance of the selective diffusion of atoms in stellar conditions and its consequences for their structure and evolution. She has shown the repercussions of these processes on the evolution of matter in the Universe since the

Big Bang The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...

. She has made important contributions to

helioseismology Helioseismology, a term coined by Douglas Gough, is the study of the structure and dynamics of the Sun through its oscillations. These are principally caused by sound waves that are continuously driven and damped by convection near the Sun's surfa ...

and

asteroseismology Asteroseismology or astroseismology is the study of oscillations in stars. Stars have many resonant modes and frequencies, and the path of sound waves passing through a star depends on the speed of sound, which in turn depends on local temperature ...

by studying the influence of the detailed internal chemical composition on the observed frequencies. In particular, she studied the vibrations of several central stars of planetary systems to determine their precise parameters. In 2004, she participated in the discovery of the smallest known planet around the star

Mu Arae Mu Arae (μ Arae, abbreviated Mu Ara, μ Ara), often designated HD 160691, officially named Cervantes , is a main sequence G V star, G-type star approximately 50 light-years away from the Sun in the constellation of Ara (constellation), A ...

. She is responsible for the discovery that the star

Iota Horologii Iota Horologii, Latinized from ι Horologii, is a yellow-hued star approximately 56.5 light-years away in the Horologium constellation. The star is classified as a G0Vp yellow dwarf (it has previously been classified as G3 and a sub ...

in the middle of the Hyades star cluster, observed in the Southern Hemisphere. An international symposium was held in her honor in 2013, on the topic of interactions between microscopic (atomic) and macroscopic (hydrodynamic) phenomena occurring in stars. This is a subject to which she has contributed a lot during her career, with the aim of better understanding the structure and evolution of stars. Vauclair is also a musician. She is interested in the relationship between philosophy, art and science and participates in many transdisciplinary events and in social debates.

Awards and honours

* 1995: Member,

Académie de l'air et de l'espace The Académie de l'air et de l'espace (AAE) is the French national Air and Space Academy. Established in 1983 in Toulouse on the initiative of André Turcat, the aims of the academy are the following: "To encourage the development of high quality ...

* 1999: Cercle d'Oc Prize * 2000: Member,

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

* 2002: Scientific book prize, Orsay * 2002: Senior member,

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 ...

* 2008: Prize, Academy of Occitania * 2009: Grand prize, friends of the

Cité de l'espace The Cité de l'espace (French for Space City) is a scientific discovery centre in France focused on spaceflight. It was opened in June 1997 and is located on the eastern outskirts of Toulouse. , there had been more than four million visitors. ...

Distinctions

* 1994: Knight, ''

Ordre des Palmes académiques A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...

'' * 2007: Officer, ''Ordre des Palmes académiques'' * 2009: Knight,

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

* 2015: Officer,

Ordre national du Mérite The Ordre national du Mérite (; en, National Order of Merit) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's esta ...

Selected works

* ''La nouvelle symphonie des étoiles'', l'humanité face au cosmos, Odile Jacob, 2021 * ''De l'origine de l'Univers à l'origine de la vie'', Odile Jacob, 2017 * ''Dialogues avec l'Univers'', Odile Jacob, 2015 * ''La nouvelle musique des sphères'', Odile Jacob, 2013 * ''La Terre, l'espace et au-delà'', Albin Michel, 2009 * ''La naissance des éléments : du Big-Bang à la Terre'', Odile Jacob, 2006 * ''La chanson du Soleil '', Albin Michel, coll. « Sciences d'aujourd'hui », 2002 * ''La symphonie des étoiles '', Albin Michel, coll. « Sciences d'aujourd'hui », 1997 * ''L'observatoire du Pic du Midi de Bigorre'', Loubatières, 1992 * ''L'astrophysique nucléaire'', PUF, coll. «

Que sais-je? "Que sais-je?" (QSJ) (; Literally: "What do I know?", ) is an editorial collection published by the Presses universitaires de France (PUF). The aim of the series is to provide the lay reader with an accessible introduction to a field of study wr ...

», 1972

Textbooks

* ''Éléments de physique statistique, hasard, organisation, évolution'', Inter-Éditions,

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

* ''An Introduction to Nuclear Astrophysics'', Reidel,

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

References