Portrait of Sandrine Courtin, USIAS Marguerite Perey Chair

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Sandrine Courtin, professor in nuclear astrophysics at the University of Strasbourg and director of its Hubert Curien Pluridisciplinary Institute (IPHC), has been appointed to the Marguerite Perey Chair in 2023.

Sandrine Courtin is one of the figureheads of French astrophysics, and is known for her experimental initiatives and measurements of carbon combustion levels at stellar energies. In this two-year position she will initiate several projects, aiming to build more solid links between the different players in her research field, nuclear physicists and astrophysicists who work from different perspectives and use different methods and languages. In addition to her academic work, she is involved in communicating scientific knowledge to a wide audience.

• Read more in a recent interview: Portrait of Sandrine Courtin - Understanding reactions at the heart of stars

Professor Courtin will give an inaugural lecture “Nucleosynthesis of chemical elements in the Universe: a plunge into the burning heart of massive stars”, on 16 November 2023. Read more about the topic of the lecture.

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The University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study (USIAS) recently established three new chair positions for Strasbourg-based researchers who have made an exceptional contribution to their field. They encompass the three main academic domains - humanities and social sciences, life sciences, and natural sciences - and are named after famous academics from the history of the University of Strasbourg. In the natural sciences, the Marguerite Perey Chair is named in honour of the French scientist, known for her discovery of francium. She was head of the department of nuclear chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, and the first woman to be elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1962.