Michel Spiro (born 24 February 1946 in

Roanne Roanne (; ; ) is a commune in the Loire department, central France. It is located northwest of Lyon on the river Loire. It has an important Museum, the ''Musée des Beaux-arts et d'Archéologie Joseph-Déchelette'' (French), with many Egypt ...

Loire The Loire ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône. It rises in the so ...

, France) is a French

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

Biography

Michel Spiro attended the high school Jean-Puy de Roanne. Spiro obtained the

baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...

in 1963, with a specialisation in

elementary mathematics Elementary mathematics, also known as primary or secondary school mathematics, is the study of mathematics topics that are commonly taught at the primary or secondary school levels around the world. It includes a wide range of mathematical c ...

. After this, he attended the school

Lycée Louis-le-Grand The Lycée Louis-le-Grand (), also referred to simply as Louis-le-Grand or by its acronym LLG, is a public Lycée (French secondary school, also known as sixth form college) located on Rue Saint-Jacques (Paris), rue Saint-Jacques in central Par ...

to prepare his entry exam at the

École polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

. He completed his graduate studies in

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...

in 1969. He joined the

French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, or CEA ( French: Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives), is a French public government-funded research organisation in the areas of energy, defense and sec ...

(CEA) in 1970, as an engineer. He was promoted to the position of director of the Particle Physics Section of the Department of Astrophysics, Particle Physics, Nuclear Physics and Associated Instrumentation (DAPNIA ) in 1991 and led the section until 1999. He became chargé de mission of the CEA and assistant scientific director in

Centre national de la recherche scientifique The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

(CNRS), responsible for astroparticle physics and neutrinos. He took over the leadership of DAPNIA in 2002. From 2003 to 2010 he was appointed director of

Institut national de physique nucléaire et de physique des particules An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

(IN2P3) in CNRS. Spiro obtained his PhD from

University of Paris-Sud Paris-Sud University (), also known as the University of Paris — XI (or as the Orsay Faculty of Sciences, University of Paris before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, ...

Orsay Orsay () is a Communes of France, commune in the Essonne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. A fortifie ...

in 1976. His early research in particle physics led him, as a member of the

UA1 experiment The UA1 experiment (an abbreviation of Underground Area 1) was a high-energy physics experiment that ran at CERN's Proton-Antiproton Collider (SpS), a modification of the one-beam Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). The data was recorded between 1 ...

, to participate in the discovery of the intermediate bosons W and Z. He then turned to study particles from the cosmos by participating in the

GALLEX GALLEX or Gallium Experiment was a radiochemical neutrino detection experiment that ran between 1991 and 1997 at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS). This project was performed by an international collaboration of French, German, Ita ...

solar neutrino detection experiment. He became then the spokesperson of the microlensing search experimen
EROS
Experience de Recherche d'Objets Sombres). From 1983 to 1999, Professor Spiro lectured

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

, then stellar equilibrium and

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

and finally energy and environment at the

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

. From 2010 to 2013 he was President of CERN Council. His presidency overlapped with the start of

LHC The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008, in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists, and ...

physics. Since then Spiro helds the position as research director emeritus at the CEA. Michel Spiro was president of the

French Physical Society French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), a ...

from 2016 to 2017 and president-elect for

International Union of Pure and Applied Physics The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP; ) is an international non-governmental organization whose mission is to assist in the worldwide development of physics, to foster international cooperation in physics, and to help in the ...

(IUPAP) as of 2018. In October 2019 Spiro was asked to replace IUPAP president

Kennedy J. Reed Kennedy J. Reed (May 24, 1944 – June 20, 2023) was an American theoretical atomic physicist in the Theory Group in the Physics & Advanced Technologies Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and a founder of the National ...

who wanted to step down for personal reasons. As of 2025 Spiro continues as IUPAP past president under the presidency of

Silvina Ponce Dawson Silvina Martha Ponce Dawson is an Argentine physicist specialized in biophysics and a full professor at the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), and senior researcher at the National Scientific Research C ...

. In June 2020, Michel Spiro was appointed chair of the CERN and Society Foundation Board, a foundation to support and promote the mission of CERN, the

European Organization for Nuclear Research European, or Europeans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other We ...

, and disseminate its benefits to the wider public. In March 2024, he was appointed chair of the Curie and Joliot-Curie Association, succeeding to Edouard Brezin. Spiro chaired during 2022 and 2023 the steering committee of the

International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development The International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development was proclaimed by the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly 2 December 2021 for 2022, stressing that the applications of basic sciences are vital for advances in m ...

(IYBSSD2022). He also contributed towards the proclamation on August 25, 2023, by the United Nations General Assembly, of an International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development 2024 to 2033. In this framework he chairs The Earth-Humanity Coalition during the year 2024.

Awards and honors

Officer of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

(2021), Knight (2004) * Ordre national du Merite Officier ribbon

Officer of the

National Order of Merit (France) National Order of Merit may refer to: * National Order of Merit (Algeria) * National Order of Merit (Bhutan) * National Order of Merit (Brazil) * National Order of Merit (Ecuador) * Ordre national du Mérite (France) * National Order of Merit ...

(2008) * 1983: Joliot-Curie Prize of the

* 1985: Thibaud Prize of the

Academy of Lyon __NOTOC__ The Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Arts of Lyon (French: Académie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Lyon) is a French learned society founded in 1700. Its founders included: * Claude Brossette, lawyer, alderman of Lyons, an ...

* 1995: Philip Morris Research Prize shared with M. Cribier and D. Vignaud for solar neutrinos (GALLEX) * 1999: Félix Robin Prize of the

Société Française de Physique The Société Française de Physique (SFP), or the French Physical Society, is the main professional society of French physicists. It was founded in 1873 by Joseph-Charles d'Almeida. History The French Physical Society is a state-approved non- ...

* 2000: Prize of the l'Association française pour le rayonnement international * 2015: Fellow of the European Physical Society * 2018
Prix A. Lagarrigue
* 2020:

Honorary doctor An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

of the

Joint Institute for Nuclear Research The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR, ), in Dubna, Moscow Oblast (110 km north of Moscow), Russia, is an international research center for nuclear sciences, with 5,500 staff members including 1,200 researchers holding over 1,000 ...

Works and publications

Scientific articles

The database

INSPIRE-HEP INSPIRE-HEP is an open access digital library for the field of high energy physics (HEP). It is the successor of the Stanford Physics Information Retrieval System (SPIRES) database, the main literature database for high energy physics since the 1 ...

has recorded more tha
200 scientific articles
signed by Spiro.

Articles of special importance

*''Experimental Observation of Isolated Large Transverse Energy Electrons with Associated Missing Energy at s**(1/2) =540-GeV.'' UA1 Collaboration (G.Arnison'' et al.''). Feb 1983. 31 pp. ''Phys. Lett. B122 (1983) 103-116'
DOI: 10.1016/0370-2693(83)91177-2
*''Experimental Particle Physics Without Accelerators.'' J. Rich, D. Lloyd Owen, M. Spiro (Saclay). 1987. 126 pp. ''Phys. Rep. 151 (1987) 239-364'
DOI: 10.1016/0370-1573(87)90055-X
*''Search for superheavy hydrogen in sea water.'' M. Spiro, B. Pichard, J. Rich, J.P. Soirat, S. Zylberajch (DAPNIA, Saclay), G. Grynberg, F. Trehin, P. Verkerk, Pierre Fayet (École Normale Superieure), M.E. Goldberg (Pasteur Inst., Paris). 1990
''Les Arcs 1990, Proceedings, New and exotic phenomena '90 489-498
*''Evidence for gravitational microlensing by dark objects in the galactic halo.'' EROS collaboration E. Aubourg, P. Bareyre, S. Brehin, M. Gros, M. Lachieze-Rey, B. Laurent, E. Lesquoy, C. Magneville, A. Milsztain, L. Moscoso (DAPNIA, Saclay)'' et al.''. Oct 1993. 3 pp. ''Nature 365 (1993) 623-625'
DOI: 10.1038/365623a0

Selected books

* * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spiro, Michel 1946 births Knights of the Legion of Honour École Polytechnique alumni Academic staff of École Polytechnique French physicists Living people Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite People associated with CERN Presidents of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Presidents of the Société Française de Physique