EPS Emmy Noether Distinction Winter 2017 for Women in Physics
It is a great pleasure to announce that the Winter 2017 EPS Emmy Noether Distinction for Women in Physics goes to Dr. Françoise Remacle from the University of Liège in Belgium.
Françoise Remacle carries out outstanding research on fundamental properties of small scale systems, primarily molecular systems and clusters, but also arrays where a dense set of electronic levels is a key feature. Perturbing such systems with both weak and strong probes, she demonstrated for the first time interesting and unusual quantum mechanical behaviour. As leader of several collaborative projects involving both experimentalists and theorists, she has made significant inroads into future emerging quantum technologies. Françoise is also recognised for her work using short high energy attosecond pulses to pump and probe molecular systems on a timescale comparable with that of electron motion. Recently, she started to work in system biology, using surprisal analysis, a thermodynamics grounded information theoretical approach for analysing and compacting high throughput genomic and proteomic data towards novel biophysical insights.
We present a short interview between Françoise Remacle [FR] and Lucia Di Ciaccio [LDC], chair of the Equal Opportunities Committee of the EPS, in Spring 2018.
LDC: At what point in your education did you consider a career in physics?
FR: I considered a career in chemical physics from the last years of high school. During my degree in chemistry, I was very much interested in theoretical chemistry and I did my PhD in quantum molecular dynamics.
LDC: During your career, did you feel that there were equal opportunities for boys and girls?
FR: Yes, I was always given equal opportunities in my scientific career and this is certainly thanks to the fight by women of previous generations and to the educational system in Belgium, starting from primary school.
LDC: Do you believe that physics should positively discriminate in favour of women?
FR: While positive discrimination actions for women certainly helps for getting better statistics, it should not be the only type of initiative to increase the number of women in physics. A down side is that it can generate doubts on the excellence of the women that are appointed under this scheme. So, I think that positive discrimination needs to be used with care. I think that the actions aiming at encouraging women in science in general, and in physics in particular, need to be taken at the level of the educational system and even more importantly during the early career stage. As I answered above, I was privileged in the sense that nobody ever raised the possibility that there were not equal opportunities for girls and boys in my entire education. I am aware that this is certainly not the case everywhere. Another consideration that I think may help, is from a societal point of view. It is crucial for mother scientists, actually for parents in general, that there is good day care for small children and good activities for older children after school, readily available at a reasonable cost.”
LDC:Do you have any advice for young women starting a career in physics?
FR: I am not sure that there is any advice to give in particular to young women starting a career in physics. My advice is ‘dare working on a subject that you really like’ and this is equally valid for young women and men physicists.
