Nuclear Physics Division

Gautier Hamel de Monchenault is an outstanding physicist of world renown who has had a brilliant career in three major international collaborations formed around three high-energy colliders: Delphi at CERN with the LEP electron-positron collider, BaBar at SLAC with the PEP-2 electron-positron collider, and CMS at CERN with the LHC proton-proton collider. These collaborations have recognised his great mastery of Standard Model physics by appointing him to positions of responsibility such as physics coordinator for Babar and deputy spokesperson for CMS. Gautier has an in-depth knowledge, both theoretical and experimental, of Standard Model physics, but also of its interfaces with fundamental physics in the broadest sense, including nuclear physics, astrophysics and cosmology, which gives him a clear and global vision of the challenges in the field. This strategic vision was reinforced by his mandate as head of the IRFU's Particle Physics Department from 2016 to 2020.

This mandate as spokesman promises to be a challenge that this brilliant physicist will undoubtedly take up with brio and efficiency. Interviewed just after the announcement of his election, Gautier Hamel de Monchenault accepted the challenge: "It is an honour to take over the management of the CMS experiment at CERN's LHC, to which our Institute has contributed so much and continues to contribute. I would like to pay tribute to the visionary physicists who, as early as the 1980s, designed and built this detector, which was ideal for discovering and studying the Higgs boson and for providing an impressive harvest of scientific results. We must now live up to their vision and prepare our detector for the high-luminosity phase of the LHC from 2029.”