The International School “Daniel Chalonge” has awarded the Daniel Chalonge Medal 2015 to Héctor J. de Vega,the greatest pillar of the School in all the School aspects and values, science with great intellectual endeavour and a human face.
Emeritus research director at the CNRS, LPTHE UPMC Paris, and associated to LERMA Observatoire de Paris. Outstanding theoretical physicist, physicist of the universe, an independent mind, with major coherence and intellectual strength, personal and scientific prestige, honesty and integrity, he worked tirelessly, wearing very high the values of Science and of the Chalonge School where he excelled in all the aspects.
He developed several scientific lives with pioneering research in different specialities and great vision of thematic evolution: Quantum field theory, integrable models, particle physics and statistical physics, string theory, cosmology, theory of inflation confronted to the cosmic microwave background observations, warm dark matter in galaxies, sterile neutrinos, with innovative sophisticated methods and powerful analytical computations. In all these areas, he formed students, post-doctoral and young researchers, trained generations of physicists and cosmologists over the world, and developped many important international collaborations.
And in the words of Gerard Gilmore (Fellow of the UK Royal Society and Chalonge Medal laureat 2013) on the 23th July 2015:
“Héctor de Vega, a really nice person”
In the words of Dr Nadia Charbit Blumenfeld (daughter of Henry and Kathleen Blumenfeld, grand daughter of Erwin Blumenfeld) and author of a photo-portrait:
“Héctor de Vega, the gentleman of Science”
In the words of George Smoot on the 24th July 2015 during the tribute to Héctor de Vega : “I shared an office with him here (room 705) : He was always disponible, good feeling , discussing science and what was going on”.
Unfortunately, is not possible in this short notice to reproduce all other testimonies of the participants , but they are all well registered and deeply acknowlodged.
Eleven Chalonge Medals awarded in the 24 years of the school history, of which four Nobel prize of physics in the astrophysics-cosmology discipline :
1991: Subramanyan Chandrasekhar, Nobel Prize of Physics.
1992: Bruno Pontecorvo.
2006: George Smoot, Nobel Prize of Physics.
2007: Carlos Frenk.
2008: Anthony Lasenby.
2008: Bernard Sadoulet, Fellow of the USA Academy of Arts and Sciences.
2009: Peter Biermann.
2011: John Mather, Nobel Prize of Physics.
2012: Brian Schmidt, Nobel Prize of Physics.
2013: Gerard Gilmore, Fellow of the UK Royal Society.
2015 : Héctor de Vega.
Science with great intellectual endeavour and a human face. True and healthy science. Outstanding scientists who are gentlepersons. Scientists recipients of the Daniel Chalonge Medal are Ambassadors of the School.
With the Chalonge Medal to Héctor de Vega, the International School Daniel Chalonge honors its scientific and human milestone. The 2015 school program is dedicated to him, tributes have been paid on the 18th May, on the 21 May in the spring open session of scientific culture “L’Homme et l’Univers, Dernières Nouvelles de l’Univers”, in the last Warm Dark Matter Chalonge Meudon CIAS Workshop in June 2015, in the 19th Paris Cosmology Colloquium 2015, and the tributes will continue in the same way, lively, that is to say, by working doing scientific research.
A surprise Award
The Chalonge medal is a totally surprise award. The medal was awarded to Héctor de Vega on the 24th July 2015 during the open session of the 19th Paris Cosmology Colloquium 2015 on the meridian of Paris, at the Paris Observatory (Observatoire de Paris), in the presence of many distinguished and renewed scientists, among them four laureats of the Daniel Chalonge medal: George Smoot, Nobel prize of physics, Anthony Lasenby, Peter Biermann, Gerard Gilmore, and of very important scientific personalities from the world over, among them physicist Alba Zanini from the INFN, Ambassador of the city of Turin for Science and scientific culture and Ambassador of the Chalonge School.
Congratulations: Scientists from over the world participated to the event on the meridian of Paris and warmely congratulated the awarded Medal
Full history and pictures:
Click to access Medal_Chalonge2015.pdf
LINKS:
The 19th Paris Cosmology Colloquium 2015 in honor of Héctor de Vega
http://chalonge.obspm.fr/colloque2015.html
http://chalonge.obspm.fr/Programme_Paris2015.html
Héctor de Vega Lecture http://chalonge.obspm.fr/Paris15_Devega.pdf
Photo Gallery http://chalonge.obspm.fr/album2015/index.html
Programme of the Year 2015 in honor to Héctor de Vega http://chalonge.obspm.fr/Programme2013.html
The Chalonge Medal Archives
http://chalonge.obspm.fr/Archives_Daniel_Chalonge.html
The Chalonge School
http://chalonge.obspm.fr