École normale supérieure de Lyon

Since its inception in 2024, the Nanomer project—which brings together European and Latin American institutions focused on nanoscience—has given rise to several initiatives in both education and research. Here’s a look back at the activities in which ENS de Lyon participated in 2025-2026 and at upcoming projects.

According to a CNRS communications dated June 22, 2026. Based on a scientific paper published in Physical Review Materials to which the LPENSL contributed: “Imprinting macroscopic fracture during gelation: A mechanism for tuning colloidal gels.” Thumbnail credit: © Mélanie CHALLE / L2C / CNRS Images

Associate Professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Kansas
Visiting Professor 2025–2026: March 30– April 30, 2026
Host researcher: Valérie Vidal

Audrey Bienfait, a CNRS research associate at ENS de Lyon's Physics laboratory (LPENSL/CNRS/ENS de Lyon), is one of three recipients of the first Young Researchers Award for Excellence, established in 2025 by the CFM Foundation for Research. Photo credit: © Nil Hoppenot

On Thursday, April 2, 2026, CRAL's young researcher Armand Leclerc was awarded the European Astrophysical Society (EAS) MERAC Prize for the best PhD thesis in Theoretical Astrophysics.

Associate Professor in Institute of Astronomy, Faculty of Science, Tohoku University, Japan
Visiting Professor 2025-2026: From February 21 to March 29, 2026.
Host Professor: Benoît Commerçon 

According to a press release from Université Grenoble Alpes and the CNRS dated December 3, 2025. Based on a scientific publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics, to which the Lyon Astrophysics Research Center (CRAL, CNRS / Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 / ENS de Lyon) of the Lyon Observatory of Universe Sciences contributed: “Characterization of debris disks observed with SPHERE.” Photo credit: © N. Engler et al./Astronomy & Astrophysics

According to a CNRS publication dated November 18, 2025, based on a press release from the ESO (European Southern Observatory). On November 10, four lasers simultaneously pierced the sky at Cerro Paranal in Chile, marking a major milestone in the GRAVITY+ project, to which the Lyon Astrophysics Research Center (CRAL / OSUL – Sponsored by: CNRS / ENS de Lyon / Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1). Photo: Artist's rendering of the GRAVITY+ project on the VLT © ESO

On Monday, November 24, 2025, the team behind the “Les Jardins de la Physique 2.0” project, led by the École de Physique des Houches (Les Houches, CEA/CNRS/ENS de Lyon/Université Grenoble Alpes) in Haute-Savoie and the Institut d'Études Scientifiques de Cargèse (IESC, CNRS/ Université of Corsica Pasquale Paoli / Université Côte d'Azur) was awarded a CNRS Collective Crystal. Photo credit © CNRS Paris-Normandie

According to a CNRS publication dated November 5, 2025. Based on a scientific publication in Nature Communications to which Stéphane Santucci, a CNRS researcher at ENS de Lyon's Physics Laboratory (LPENSL), contributed: Multiscale stress dynamics in sheared liquid foams revealed by tomo-rheoscopy. Thumbnail credit: © CNRS

According to a CNRS communication dated October 29, 2025. Based on a scientific publication in Physical Review Letters to which Ludovic Bellon, a CNRS researcher at ENS de Lyon's Physics Laboratory (LPENSL), contributed: “Information Engine Fueled by First-Passage Times.” Thumbnail image: a Brownian particle (subject to thermal agitation) wanders in a confined well until it reaches a threshold, where an automated system (a demon) acts on the position of the well to extract energy from the particle. © Aubin Archambault, Caroline Crauste-Thibierge, Alberto Imparato, Christopher Jarzynski, Sergio Ciliberto, Ludovic Bellon.

According to a press release from the Lyon Observatory dated September 4, 2025, based on a scientific publication to which Elliot Lynch, researcher at CRAL (ENS de Lyon/CNRS/UCBL), contributed as part of an international team: “ALMA Reveals an Eccentricity Gradient in the Fomalhaut Debris Disk”, published in The Astrophysical Journal on September 4, 2025.

According to a CNRS communication dated September 30, 2025. Based on a scientific publication in Astrophysical Journal to which Adnan-Ali Ahmad, a CNRS researcher at the Lyon Astrophysics Research Center (CRAL), contributed: “Brown Dwarf Formation Through Gravitational Collapse: Insights From 3D Numerical Simulations.” Image: © Adnan-Ali AHMAD and Alex ANDRIX – CRAL

Press release, Villeurbanne, October 9, 2025. The past of the planet Mars continues to captivate the scientific community. One question in particular remains unanswered: did oceans once cover the surface of the Red Planet? Recently, a research team, bringing together numerous French laboratories including the Lyon Geology Laboratory: Earth, Planets, Environment (LGL-TPE – Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 / ENS de Lyon / CNRS) and the Marseille Astrophysics Laboratory (LAM – Aix Marseille Université / CNRS / CNES), has been studying the Northern Plains of Mars using various NASA and ESA probes orbiting Mars. They have published their new findings in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Trieste.
Visiting Professor 2025-2026: From January 5 to January 23, 2026, and from February 3 to February 13, 2026.
Host Professor: Ludovic Bellon 

CNRS press release dated 23 July 2025. Based on a scientific publication to which members of the Lyon Astrophysics Research Centre (CNRS, ENS de Lyon, Claude Bernard University) and the LPENSL Physics Laboratory (CNRS, ENS de Lyon) contributed: ‘A Core-sensitive Mixed f/g-mode of the Sun Predicted by Wave Topology and Hydrodynamical Simulation’, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Senior Research Scientist in the Division of Fundamental Mathematical Science, at RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences.
Visiting professor 2024-2025 from 13 June to 14 July 2025
Inviting professor: Etera Livine

A researcher from the Physics Laboratory at ENS de Lyon “unravels knitwear” to turn it into a research subject...

Professor of Signal and Image Processing, Institute for Digital Communications, University of Edinburgh
Visiting Professor 2023-2024 from 13 of November to 8 of December 2023
Visiting Professor: Tachella Julian

Adjunct professor at the Engineering Department of the University of Buenos Aires (FIUBA), independent researcher at IAR (Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía) and CONICET (National Council for Scientific and Technical Research).
Visiting professor 2024-2025. January 8 to February 12, 2025.
Inviting professor: Julian Tachella.

Isabelle Baraffe, a member of the Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon (CRAL), is a Professor of Astrophysics on secondment at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. In October 2024, she was awarded a prize for her pioneering research in theoretical astrophysics, which has revolutionised our understanding of the structure and evolution of stars and planets.

Congratulations to Amélie Joly (IGFL) and Lise Morlet-Decarnin (LPENSL).

Research and sports can be closely linked. This is demonstrated by the Physics Laboratory of ENS de Lyon, which has long been involved in work to improve sporting performance. As the Olympic and Paralympic Games draw to a close, let's take a look at the contribution science makes to sport.

Publication of the Physics Laboratory in the Physical Review Letters on July 31, 2024. Communication by CNRS Physics on September 2, 2024.

Publication of the Physics laboratory in Physical Review Fluids on May 3, 2024. Communication by CNRS Physics on July 3, 2024.

Publication of the Physics Laboratory in the Physical Review Materials on July 9, 2024. Communication by CNRS Physics on September 5, 2024.

Publication of the RDP in PNAS on May 30, 2024. Communication by CNRS Physics on July 8, 2024.

Ingrid Daubechies, Doctor Honoris causa of ENS de Lyon in 2018, is invited at the 32nd edition of Eusipco, Europe's leading signal processing conference, held in Lyon this week.

Congratulations are in order for physicist Lydéric Bocquet, former doctoral student and later Research Associate at the Physics Laboratory of ENS de Lyon.

Publication of the Physics Laboratory in the Journal of Rheology on April 11, 2024.

Alice & Bob and research partners granted €16.5 million in public funding to make quantum computing 10 times cheaper. Alice & Bob is the first company ever to receive all four innovation grants from the French State.

Presse release on March 27, 2024

The CNRS awards François Leulier, Director of the IGFL, the silver medal and Lucie Étienne, a researcher at CIRI, and three alumni of our school, the bronze medal.

Publication of the RDP in the journal Phys. Rev. Lett. on October 24, 2023. News by CNRS Physics on January 22, 2024.

Publication of the Physics Laboratory in the journal Physical Review Letters on January 19, 2024. News by CNRS Physics on January 23, 2024.

Gilles Chabrier, Emeritus CNRS Research Director in CRAL AstroENS team, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Exeter, receives the prestigious Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, for his outstanding contributions to astrophysics and galactic astronomy.

Patrick Flandrin, CNRS Research Director Emeritus, member of the Physics Laboratory of ENS de Lyon and member of the French Academy of Sciences, receives the IEEE Signal Processing Society's Carl Friedrich Gauss Education Award 2023, for his contributions to the education in time-frequency-based methods and their mathematical foundations.

Alain Pumir, CNRS Research Director at ENS de Lyon Physics Laboratory, receives the 2023 Ed Lorenz Lecture Award from the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Publication of the Physics Laboratory and Chemistry Laboratory in the journal Langmuir on November 16, 2023. News by CNRS Chemistry on December 19, 2023.

Publication of the RDP in the journal PNAS on November 21, 2023. News by CNRS Engineering on December 7, 2023.

Publication of the CRAL in the journal Nature on December 6, 2023. Press alert of CNRS on December 6, 2023.

Congratulations to Anne L'Huillier, a former student of ENS de Lyon, laureate of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics, alongside Ferenc Krausz and Pierre Agostini.

Louis-Alexandre Couston, Associate Professor of Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University at the Physics Laboratory, and Benjamin Wesolowski, CNRS Research at UMPA, have been awarded the prestigious "Starting" Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).

Publication of the Physics Laboratory in the journal PNAS, on July 18, 2022, and Nano Letters, on May 22, 2023. Communication of CNRS-INP on July 17, 2023.

Publication of the Physics Laboratory in the journal Nature on June 14, 2023. Communication of the CNRS-INP on June 14, 2023.

Publication of the Physics Laboratory and the LIP in the journal PRX Quantum on April 18, 2023. Communication of the CNRS-INP on June 13, 2023.

Congratulations to the physics students of ENS de Lyon and their coaches for this wonderful victory.

Publication of the Physics Laboratory in the journal Nature Physics on May 4, 2023. Communication of the CNRS-INSIS on May 9, 2023.