Bernard Bigot (; 24 January 1950 – 14 May 2022) was a French academic and civil servant. He served as the Director-General of the

ITER ITER (initially the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, ''iter'' meaning "the way" or "the path" in Latin) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject aimed at creating energy through a fusion process s ...

organization between 2015 and 2022. He was the president of the

École normale supérieure de Lyon École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

and director of the French Commission for Atomic Energy.

Education

Bernard Bigot studied at the

École normale supérieure de lettres et sciences humaines The (ENS LSH) was an elite French ''grande école'' specialising in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Founded in 1987 in Paris as the École normale supérieure de Fontenay-Saint-Cloud, it changed its name to ENS LSH in 2000 when it mov ...

, the Orsay faculty of sciences, which is now part of

Paris-Saclay University Paris-Saclay University (, ) is a combined technological research institute and public research university in Orsay, France. Paris-Saclay was established in 2019 after the merger of four technical ''grandes écoles,'' as well as several technol ...

and the

Pierre and Marie Curie University Pierre and Marie Curie University ( , UPMC), also known as Paris VI, was a public research university in Paris, France, from 1971 to 2017. The university was located on the Jussieu Campus in the Latin Quarter of the 5th arrondissement of Paris, ...

. He earned an advanced degree in physical sciences with a major in chemistry and a doctorate in physics and chemistry. Bigot completed his doctoral thesis in 1979 at Orsay with

Lionel Salem Lionel Salem (5 March 1937 – 29 June 2024) was a French theoretical chemist, former research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), retired since 1999. He was a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molec ...

as his supervisor, titled ''Étude théorique de la réactivité des états excités des molécules organiques par la méthode des corrélations naturelles''.

Career

When the École normale supérieure de Lyon was founded in 1985, Bernard Bigot was appointed deputy director of studies. In July 2003, he was appointed High Commissioner for Atomic Energy, a post he held until May 2009. In January 2009, he was appointed Director General of the French Atomic Energy Commission, replacing Alain Bugat. In 2011, he was reappointed as Director General of the CEA for a three-year term from 9 January 2012. In November 2014, he was appointed to succeed Osamu Motojima as Director General of the

international research project. He was elected Director-General on 5 March 2015, and unanimously re-elected by the ITER Council in January 2019 for a further five years, but fell ill and died on 14 May 2022. His successor, Pietro Barabaschi, was appointed by the ITER Council on 15 September 2022.

Personal life

Bigot married Chantal Martin in 1975. Bigot died on 14 May 2022, at the age of 72.

References

External links

* 1950 births 2022 deaths French nuclear physicists People from Blois École Normale Supérieure alumni Pierre and Marie Curie University alumni Commanders of the Legion of Honour Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite ITER people {{France-physicist-stub