Thibault Damour promoted to Officer of the Legion of Honor

On October 28, the Consulate General of France in New York hosted a ceremony to present Thibault Damour, theoretical physicist and Professor Emeritus at IHES, with the insignia of Officer of the Legion of Honor.

Following a speech delivered by Cédrik Fouriscot, Consul General of France in New York, this prestigious distinction was presented to him by Jean Reno, in the presence of distinguished guests including Pierre Deligne, former Permanent Professor at IHES and Fields Medal laureate, Marilyn Simons, co-founder of the Simons Foundation and Chair of Friends of IHES, Kip S. Thorne, theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate, and Emmanuel Ullmo, Director of IHES.

Born in 1951, Thibault Damour joined the CNRS in 1977, holding various research positions before becoming a Permanent Professor at IHES in 1989. He remained there until 2022, when he became Professor Emeritus.

Thibault Damour is internationally renowned for his work in general relativity, black hole astrophysics, and gravitational waves. His research notably led to the development of the Effective One Body (EOB) formalism, an analytical framework used to model compact binary systems and interpret gravitational-wave signals detected by LIGO and Virgo.

Throughout his career, he has received numerous scientific distinctions, including the Einstein Medal, the Galileo Medal, and the CNRS Gold Medal. He had already been a Knight of the Legion of Honor since 2010, and the October 28 ceremony marks his promotion to the rank of Officer.

This distinction celebrates Thibault Damour’s outstanding scientific career and his lasting influence in the fields of theoretical physics and astrophysics.