Sylvie Vauclair (born on March 7, 1946, in

Saint-Germain-en-Laye Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. ...

) is a French astrophysicist (at the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie), and

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

(at the Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier University), where she taught for more than 30 years. She also taught for a decade at the

Paris Diderot University Paris Diderot University, also known as Paris 7 (), was a French university located in Paris, France. It was one of the inheritors of the historic University of Paris, which was split into 13 universities in 1970. Paris Diderot merged with Pari ...

. She has served as president of the

Société Française d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique The Société Française d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique (SF2A) is a French society of professional astronomers. It was officially created on November 15, 1978, with Raymond Michard as the first president. The main goal of the society is the prom ...

Biography

After two theses under the direction of Hubert Reeves and then Evry Schatzman, her scientific work first focused on the formation and evolution of the chemical elements that make up matter in the universe: sun, stars, primordial universe. She particularly studied the importance of the selective diffusion of atoms in stellar conditions and its consequences for their structure and evolution. She has shown the repercussions of these processes on the evolution of matter in the Universe since the

Big Bang The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept explain a broad range of phenomena, including th ...

. She has made important contributions to

helioseismology Helioseismology is the study of the structure and dynamics of the Sun through its oscillations. These are principally caused by sound waves that are continuously driven and damped by convection near the Sun's surface. It is similar to geoseismol ...

and

asteroseismology Asteroseismology is the study of oscillations in stars. Stars have many Resonance, resonant modes and frequencies, and the path of sound waves passing through a star depends on the local speed of sound, which in turn depends on local temperature a ...

by studying the influence of the detailed internal chemical composition on the observed frequencies. In particular, she studied the vibrations of several central stars of planetary systems to determine their precise parameters. In 2004, she participated in the discovery of the smallest known planet around the star Mu Arae. She is responsible for the discovery that the star

Iota Horologii Iota Horologii, Latinisation of names, Latinized from ι Horologii, is a star in the Horologium (constellation), Horologium constellation. With an apparent magnitude of +5.40, it can be seen to the naked eye only from places not affecte ...

in the middle of the Hyades star cluster, observed in the Southern Hemisphere. An international symposium was held in her honor in 2013, on the topic of interactions between microscopic (atomic) and macroscopic (hydrodynamic) phenomena occurring in stars. This is a subject to which she has contributed a lot during her career, with the aim of better understanding the structure and evolution of stars. Vauclair is also a musician. She is interested in the relationship between philosophy, art and science and participates in many transdisciplinary events and in social debates.

Awards and honours

* 1995: Member, Académie de l'air et de l'espace * 1999: Cercle d'Oc Prize * 2000: Member,

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

* 2002: Scientific book prize, Orsay * 2002: Senior member,

Institut Universitaire de France The Institut Universitaire de France (IUF, Academic Institute of France), is a service of the French Ministry of Higher Education that annually distinguishes a small number of university professors for their research excellence, as evidenced by t ...

* 2008: Prize, Academy of Occitania * 2009: Grand prize, friends of the

Cité de l'espace Cité may refer to: Places * Cité (Paris Métro), the metro station on the ''Île de la Cité'' * Cité (Quebec), type of municipality in Quebec * Citadel, the historical centre of an old city, originally fortified * Housing estate, a group of h ...

Distinctions

* 1994: Knight, ''

Ordre des Palmes académiques A suite, in Western classical music, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes; and grew in scope so that by the early 17th century it comprised up to ...

'' * 2007: Officer, ''Ordre des Palmes académiques'' * 2009: Knight,

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 ...

* 2015: Officer,

Ordre national du Mérite The (; ) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's establishment was twofold: to replace the large number of ...

Selected works

* ''La nouvelle symphonie des étoiles'', l'humanité face au cosmos, Odile Jacob, 2021 * ''De l'origine de l'Univers à l'origine de la vie'', Odile Jacob, 2017 * ''Dialogues avec l'Univers'', Odile Jacob, 2015 * ''La nouvelle musique des sphères'', Odile Jacob, 2013 * ''La Terre, l'espace et au-delà'', Albin Michel, 2009 * ''La naissance des éléments : du Big-Bang à la Terre'', Odile Jacob, 2006 * ''La chanson du Soleil '', Albin Michel, coll. « Sciences d'aujourd'hui », 2002 * ''La symphonie des étoiles '', Albin Michel, coll. « Sciences d'aujourd'hui », 1997 * ''L'observatoire du Pic du Midi de Bigorre'', Loubatières, 1992 * ''L'astrophysique nucléaire'', PUF, coll. « Que sais-je? », 1972

Textbooks

* ''Éléments de physique statistique, hasard, organisation, évolution'', Inter-Éditions, 1993 * ''An Introduction to Nuclear Astrophysics'', Reidel, 1979

References