With the Académie des Sciences in 2015

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AVEC L’ACADÉMIE DES SCIENCES 2015
THE ACADÉMIE: ALWAYS IN TUNE WITH ITS TIME
Adapting to the Evolution of Science
Faced with an unprecedented boom in science and with the birth of new disciplines, the Académie has revamped itself. In the early
2000s, it adopted new statutes that allowed for its membership to increase – it now comprises 258 members, 133 foreign associates
and 87 correspondents1 — – and rejuvenate: at each session of elections, at least 50% of the new members are under 55 years old2.
In doing so, the Académie thus covers the widest possible array of scientific domains, including the most emerging ones.
Fifteen New Foreign Associates in 2015
The statutes of the Académie state that “The Académie is composed of 150 foreign associates at most, chosen among the most eminent foreign
scientists (Article 27). The foreign associates contribute to the international reputation of the Académie. They are invited to notify the Académie
of the results of their research and, when they are present in Paris, to participate to the fulfilment of the mission of the Académie (Article 28)”.
In 2015, an ad-hoc working group was set up by the Académie, and, based on its conclusions, the Comité Restreint (Select Committee)
organized a session to elect foreign associates: on this occasion, on 17 November 2015, eminent foreign scientists were proposed by each
section, the global list of the Electoral Commission was approved, then the proper election by the Comité Secret (Closed-Door Committee)
took place. This election was validated by a decree from the President of the French Republic3, dated 22 March 2016.
Division 1
Section of Mathematics
• Maryam Mirzakhani, Iran, professor of mathematics at the University of Stanford (USA), 2014 Fields Medal
• Báo Châu Ngô,Vietnam and France, scientific director of the Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics in Hanoï, 2010 Fields Medal
Section of Physics
• Ian Affleck, Canada, professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
• Fabiola Gianotti, Italy, 2016-2020 director-general of CERN, Geneva
Section of Mechanics and Computer Science
• Michael Brady, Great Britain, co-director of the Oxford Cancer Imaging Centre
• Adi Shamir, Israel, professor of computer science at the Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, 2002 Turing award winner, 2012 laureate of the
Grande Médaille de l’Académie des Sciences
• Subra Suresh, India and United States, president of the Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh (PA)
Section of Earth Sciences and Astronomy
• Véronique Dehan, Belgium, extraordinary professor at UCL (Université Catholique de Louvain)
• Alessandro Morbidelli, Italy, director of the French National Programme for Planetary Science (PNP) at the Côte d’Azur Observatory (OCA), Nice
Division 2
Section of Chemistry
• Avelino Corma, professor at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, 2011 laureate of the Grande Médaille de l’Académie des Sciences
Section of Molecular and Cell Biology
• Hans Clever, Netherlands, former president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2013 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
• Svante Pääbo, Sweden, director of the Department of Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig (Germany)
• Shinya Yamanaka, Japan, director of the Centre for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University, 2012 Nobel Prize in
Medicine
Section of Integrative Biology
• Sandra Myrna Diaz, Argentina, professor of Community and Ecosystems Ecology at the Department of Biological at the University of
Córdoba
Section of Human Biology and Medical Sciences
• Max Cooper, United States, professor of immunology at the Emory University, Atlanta
1 As of 31 December 2016
2 On 1 January of the year of their election
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