International SAS Prize 2025 in Natural Sciences Awarded to Dr. Christophe Marcenat

In 2025, the Scientific Council of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) awarded the International SAS Prize in the field of Natural Sciences to French physicist Dr. Christophe Marcenat, an internationally recognized expert in the physics of quantum materials. The award ceremony will take place on Wednesday, 24 September 2025, at 11:00 a.m. in the Primate’s Palace in Bratislava.

Dr. Christophe Marcenat works as a senior expert at the Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique (CEA) in Grenoble and has been a long-standing collaborator of the Institute of Experimental Physics SAS (IEP SAS). His research focuses on new types of superconductors, which play a crucial role in the development of modern technologies of the “second quantum revolution.” He has significantly contributed to the advancement of unique microcalorimetry methods, enabling the study of materials under extreme conditions – at ultra-low temperatures, high pressures, and in strong magnetic fields.

Dr. Marcenat is among the leading solid-state physicists, with widely respected scientific achievements. He is the author or co-author of more than 170 scientific papers, many of them published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Nature Communications, and Physical Review Letters. His work has been cited more than 5,700 times (Google Scholar). His seminal research led to the discovery of superconductivity in doped silicon – the element that underpins today’s semiconductor electronics.

His ties with Slovak science are both long-standing and fruitful. Collaboration with the Low Temperature Physics Center of IEP SAS in Košice has lasted more than two decades. Together with his Slovak colleagues, he has achieved breakthrough results in the study of magnesium diboride superconductors and high-temperature superconductors. Many Slovak doctoral students and young researchers benefited from his expertise by training in Grenoble’s renowned laboratories. Thanks to his engagement, Slovak low-temperature physics has gained recognition among the world’s leaders.

The award is a symbolic recognition not only of his scientific achievements, but also of his long-term and intensive cooperation with Slovak researchers.

Original text: SAS News