Olivier Donard Elected to French National Academy of Sciences
On December 19, 2022, the French National Academy of Sciences published the list of its 18 new members, which includes Olivier Donard, CNRS research director emeritus at the University of Pau and Pays de l'Adour and first director of IPREM laboratory. The official ceremony took place on Tuesday, June 6, 2023, under the dome of famous Institut de France in Paris.
Born in 1954, Olivier Donard studied analytical and environmental chemistry at the University of Bordeaux-I in France, held his first position as a lecturer at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and then completed a post-doctoral fellowship of nearly three years in the United States on contract from the US Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation. He then became a CNRS research fellow at the University of Bordeaux-I in 1985, where he also taught for 12 years.
At the request of the CNRS, he created the Laboratoire de Chimie Bioinorganique et Environnement (EP 132) in Pau in 1995, which in 2014 became the Institut des sciences analytiques et de physico-chimie pour l'environnement et les matériaux (IPREM), a joint UPPA/CNRS 5254 research unit, which he directed until 2017. From 2012 to 2020, he was also the director of the Mass Spectrometry for Reactivity and Speciation Sciences (MARSS) center, which in 2017 obtained the "Equipment of Excellence" label funded by the government's Investissements d'Avenir Program and implemented by the French National Research Agency. This center is considered the largest mass spectrometry (speciation and isotope) center in Europe.
Author of 308 peer-reviewed scientific publications, Olivier Donard has also created two companies related to his field of expertise, Ultra Traces Analyse Aquitaine (UT2A) in 1999 and Advanced Isotopic Analysis (AIA) in 2017. During his career, he has also taught in England (Leicester) and Sweden (Gothenburg).
The French National Academy of Sciences
Created by Colbert in 1666, the French National Academy of Sciences is an assembly of scientists chosen among the most eminent French and foreign specialists. The academicians are elected to lifetime membership, following a rigorous internal process that lasts almost a year, the result of which is then ratified by an official decree of the President of the Republic.
Today, the Academy has 286 members, 120 foreign associates and 63 correspondents. It elects new members every three years to ensure coverage of all scientific fields, including emerging ones.
The role of the Academy of Sciences is to provide a framework of expertise, advice and warning on the political, ethical and societal issues raised by science. The Academy of Sciences works to share science in order to enlighten citizens' choices and formulates recommendations that can be used by government authorities. It also supports research, is committed to the quality of science education and promotes scientific life at the international level.
