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Dan Shechtman, the 2011 Chemistry Nobel Laureate, gave at ESPCI ParisTech his first lecture in France since being awarded the Nobel Prize. This exceptional conference took place in the amphitheater named after Frédéric Joliot, who graduated from ESPCI in 1923 and received the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 1935 with his wife Irène Joliot-Curie for the discovery of artificial radioactivity. This lecture was fascinating for its scientific content and for the human story behind the discovery of quasi crystals and the struggle that Dan Shechtman led to have their existence acknowledged by the scientific community. The event has been captured on video.

A common feature of sailboards, aircraft and electronic circuits is that they all contain resins used for their lightness, strength and resistance. However, once cured, these resins can no longer be reshaped. Only certain inorganic compounds, including glass, offered this possibility until now. Combining such properties in a single material seemed impossible until a team led by Ludwik Leibler, CNRS researcher at the Laboratoire “Matière Molle et Chimie” (CNRS/ESPCI ParisTech), developed a new class of compounds capable of this remarkable feat.

The NIH Bench to Bedside Pioneer Award recipient is Prof. Claude Boccara of Institut Langevin at Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles ESPCI in Paris, where Professor Boccara has been one of the most inspiring scientists. Since 1982 at ESPCI, Professor Boccara has contributed to the advance of optical sciences as Director of Laboratoire d’optique, then Dean of Research with Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (Physics Nobel Laureate) and Jacques Prost. His pioneering work on understanding the physics of small objects has led to extremely sophisticated technologies in microscopy and spectroscopy.

What is ESPCI ParisTech ?

Exactly a century ago, in April 1911, Kamerlingh Onnes discovered superconductivity — the property of certain materials to conduct electricity with zero electrical resistance, and which is capable of causing certain objects to levitate. Superconductivity has been the subject of intensive research at ESPCI ParisTech for decades. To celebrate the centenary of the discovery, several events have been organized at the School, with a range of films, exhibitions, and creative activities. Some are factual and others are more fanciful. Here’s a review of the initiatives and a small selection of links.