The 2022 CNRS gold medal, one of the most prestigious French scientific awards, was awarded on Thursday July 7 to chemist Jean-Marie Tarascon, specialist in batteries and “pioneer in electrochemical energy storage”. His research, recognized worldwide, “are at the heart of the scientific challenges and environmental issues of today and tomorrow: enabling energy storage while respecting the principles of eco-design, safety and recycling”CNRS boss Antoine Petit said in a statement.
At 68, Jean-Marie Tarascon has worked for more than 25 years in laboratories associated with the CNRS and is now a professor at the Collège de France. He also leads the French network on energy RS2E which brings together industrial and academic players.
Energy storage
The researcher began his career in the United States in the early 1980s. In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake in California revived research on batteries when, faced with the urgency of the situation, the autonomy of lead batteries turns out to be insufficient.
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Jean-Marie Tarascon then took over as head of the energy storage research group and converted to electrochemistry. With his team, he explores the way “still in its infancy” lithium batteries and developed the first ultra-thin, more flexible and safer batteries, which today power certain electric cars.
Since his return to France in 1995, he notably headed the reactivity and solid chemistry laboratory in Amiens, and initiated the creation of the RS2E network. It was under his leadership that this network developed the sodium-ion battery, used for storing renewable energies.
Since 1954, the CNRS gold medal has been awarded every year “all the work of a scientific personality who has made an exceptional contribution to the dynamism and influence of French research”. Last year, the award crowned the work of physicist Jean Dalibard.