Michaël Gillon, a qualified f.r.s-FNRS researcher within the STAR Research Unit, saw his work recognised with the prestigious Balzan award. With an amount of €60,000 (half of which is intended for research projects), the researcher will receive his award during an official ceremony held in Bern next November.
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t was in Milan, on 11 September, at the headquarters of the Fondation Corriere della Sera, that the names of the 7 winners (two Germans, one Indian, three Americans and one Belgian) were revealed by the President of the General Committee of the Balzan Award, Salvatore Vecam and by the President of the Balzan “Award” Foundation, Enrico Decleva. Michaël Gillon, a qualified f.r.s-FNRS researcher within the STAR Research Unit, was recognised for his planetary research based on neighbouring stars. It was Bengt Gustafsson (distinguished Professor of theoretical astrophysics at the University of Uppsala; member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, the Danish Royal Academy of Sciences and Philosophy and the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Philosophy) who motivated the awarding of the prize for solar system planets and exoplanets to Michaël Gillon: “For his innovative and productive research on planets around neighbouring stars, an important step to discovering signs of life outside our solar system”.
The award has a value of 750,000 Swiss Francs (approx. €660,000) - half is to be dedicated to research projects by the winners - and will be given to the winners during an award ceremony which will take place in Bern on 7 November.
Chaque année quatre Prix Balzan sont attribués à des chercheurs et savants qui se sont distingués, au niveau international, dans leur domaine d'activités. Le but des Prix Balzan est en effet d'encourager la culture, les sciences, ainsi que les initiatives humanitaires les plus méritoires en faveur de la paix et de la fraternité entre les peuples, sans distinction de nationalité, de race ou de religion. Les quatre matières récompensées changent chaque année et sont choisies, comme l'énoncent les Statuts de la Fondation Balzan, parmi " les lettres, les sciences morales et les arts " et " les sciences physiques, mathématiques, naturelles et médicales ". Le roulement des matières permet de privilégier des filons de recherche nouveaux ou émergents et de soutenir des domaines de recherche importants mais souvent négligés par les autres grands prix internationaux.
Depuis 2001 le Règlement du Comité Général des Prix impose aux Lauréats de destiner la moitié du montant du Prix reçu au financement de projets de recherche menés de préférence par de jeunes chercheurs.
Michaël Gillon – http://reflexions.ulg.ac.be/MichaelGillon
Unité de recherche STAR – http://star.ulg.ac.be
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