Production year
2017
© Frédérique PLAS / CNRS Images
20170117_0002
The physicist Alain Brillet, joint winner of the CNRS 2017 Gold Metal, in Nice in October 2017. Alain Brillet is currently senior researcher emeritus with CNRS, working at the ARTEMIS laboratory, which specialises in relativistic astrophysics, theories, experiments, metrology, instrumentation and signals. He joined CNRS in 1970, and very soon took an interest in stabilised lasers, a subject not previously studied in France at that time. Attracted by the potential benefits of gravitational wave-based detection and by the scale of the challenge in terms of both the science and the necessary instrumentation, he developed innovative solutions in the field of lasers and optics, culminating in the design of the Virgo interferometer. Between 1989 and 2003, he first managed and then co-managed the consortium associated with this major instrument. From 2008, he focused on the general and optical design of the Advanced Virgo second-generation laser detection system. In 2016, in acknowledgement of his research, he was awarded the Ampère Prize, from the French Académie des Sciences, and the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, in his capacity as a member of the LIGO-Virgo team.
The use of media visible on the CNRS Images Platform can be granted on request. Any reproduction or representation is forbidden without prior authorization from CNRS Images (except for resources under Creative Commons license).
No modification of an image may be made without the prior consent of CNRS Images.
No use of an image for advertising purposes or distribution to a third party may be made without the prior agreement of CNRS Images.
For more information, please consult our general conditions
2017
Our work is guided by the way scientists question the world around them and we translate their research into images to help people to understand the world better and to awaken their curiosity and wonderment.